After over fifty years of adventures, it's indisputable that Doctor Who has been warming the hearts of its audiences so much that they keep coming back for more.

Not only does the Doctor have countless companions that have proven to be heartwarming to varying degrees, but thirteen different faces that have all told a different story of how kind he is at heart(s), too.

Mostly, when The Doctor acknowledges his threatening to throw her and Ian out the TARDIS was out of line. His epiphany leads him into loosening up and acting more like the Doctor we all love and know later on.

While not much attention is drawn to it (during or after the crisis), it's possible that Barbara was contacted by the TARDIS because it likes her. Making Barbara the first companion the TARDIS ever grew to like.

While Barbara and Susan are trapped with the seemingly deranged John, the aliens telepathically induce John to try and frighten the girls, thus making them easier to control. Despite obviously being drained of strength and will, he fights off the Sensorites when Barbara says she trusts him to protect them.

The Doctor decides to leave his granddaughter Susan behind so she can marry a nice young resistance fighter and have some stability in her life. This scene is often viewed as the defining moment for the First Doctor's kindness and the show's future in general.

The Doctor: One day I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. Goodbye, Susan.

The Doctor is passing out directions and stops cold when he starts to say something to Susan, who is no longer there. Barbara offers to let the Doctor show her what needs to be done.

The Doctor's first one-on-one conversation with Vicki. He comforts her and assures her that they are not there to ruin things for Vicki as she fears they will. He also convinces her to forgive Barbara for Barbara's Hands Off My Fluffy moment.

The ending. After five episodes of torment and tension from the threat of the psychic superpower Animus, the Zarbi, who had been mind controlled, are at peace with the heroes (Barbara even pets a Zarbi larva) and the Optera, who had been living in constant pain underground, playfully prance around in the daylight. When they leave, the Menoptra deliver a "they shall be remembered" speech on par with the Ood remembering the Doctor Donna.

"Their deeds shall be sung in the temples of light. Viktos shall remind us of the time as it circles Vortis. Every time it points to the needle of the kings, as it does now, we shall weep songs to praise the Gods of light, and thank them that they sent the Earth people to save us from the Animus."

Ian and Barbara use a Dalek time machine to return home, followed by a picture montage of them lollygagging around London, complete with Ian freaking out upon seeing a police box then finding out it's a real one. Of course, we then see the Doctor quite sullen at having his first voluntarily leaving companions, so it moves over into Tear Jerker territory.

Dodo coming aboard the TARDIS towards the end of the story. Steven realising Anne may have survived after all, the Doctor highlighting her resemblance of Susan, and of course Steven forgiving the Doctor and returning to the TARDIS. The preceding serial has been so utterly bleak and tragic for both of them (as was the one before it, given the deaths of Bret, Katarina and Sara), that it's wonderful to see some form of hope return - in the form of the young girl with the soon-to-be-revoked Mancunian accent.

The Doctor: Jamie! They're taking me for a ride! They're playing a game!

Jamie calling out the Doctor for manipulating him to use in his plan against the Daleks. It's the first real argument the pair have. Their reconciliation, as well as the Doctor's explanation of his actions, definitely deserves a place here.

Jamie: You don't give that much for a living soul except yourself! The Doctor: I care about life. I care about human beings. Do you think I let you go through that Dalek test lightly? Jamie: I don't know....(softens) Did you?

The Doctor explaining to Alpha, Beta and Omega (the newly humanized Daleks) that he and Jamie are their friends.

The Doctor's speech to Victoria where he comforts her over her recently deceased father.

Victoria: You probably can't remember your family. The Doctor: Oh yes, I can when I want to. And that's the point, really. I have to really want to, to bring them back in front of my eyes. The rest of the time they... they sleep in my mind and I forget. And so will you. Oh yes, you will. You'll find there's so much else to think about. To remember. Our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting thing, that nobody in the universe can do what we're doing.

The Doctor has escaped the destruction of the parallel Earth in and meets Sir Keith, who was only slightly injured in his version of the car accident his counterpart died in. The Doctor realises that "Free will is not an illusion" and that therefore this Earth can still be saved.

The last scene where the Doctor has another argument with the Brigadier and storms off in the TARDIS, only to turn up seconds later covered in dirt from the local dump. The usually proud Third Doctor is forced to sheepishly ask the Brigadier for some help recovering his TARDIS. The Brigadier repeats one of the Doctor's insults, but in a lightly mocking rather than vindictive manner. Let's face it: the Doctor may be smart, but there are times where without the Brig, he'd be lost.

Azal is "almost" swayed by the Doctor's eloquent defense of humanity and offers him the power to rule them instead of the Master. The Doctor of course refuses, and Azal angrily decides to kill him. Jo, in an almost insane act of courage offers herself in the Doctor's place. Unable to comprehend self-sacrifice, Azal literally suffers a Critical Existence Failure as a consequence of both The Doctor and Jo's selflessness.

The Doctor: Oh, I expect they're saving us for interrogation. They'll want to know what we're doing on this planet. You know, what you did back there, leading the searchers away from us, was very courageous.

Codal: I just didn't give myself time to think. If I had, I certainly wouldn't have taken the risk.

The Doctor: Oh, I don't know. I think you're doing yourself rather an injustice there. If you hadn't acted the way you did, we'd have all been captured. They give medals for that sort of bravery.

Codal: Bravery? I've been terrified ever since I landed on this planet. It's different for Taron and Vaber, they're professionals. They've seen action before.

The Doctor: And do you think they're any the less brave because of that?

Codal: They know how to deal with fear. They're used to living close to death. I'm not. I'm a scientist, not an adventurer.

The Doctor: Well, forgive me if I'm wrong, but aren't you a volunteer?

Codal: Yes.

The Doctor: Then you must have known what you were getting into?

Codal: No. None of us did. We're not a warlike people, Doctor. We've only just developed space flight. No one had attempted a voyage of this length before, but every man and woman from my division volunteered. Over six hundred of them. You see, I didn't even have the courage to be the odd man out. What are you laughing at?

The Doctor: Ah, you, my friend. You may be a very brilliant scientist but you have very little understanding of people, particularly yourself. Courage isn't just a matter of not being frightened, you know.

Codal: What is it, then?

The Doctor: It's being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway, just as you did.

The Doctor's famous Homo sapiens speech, acknowledging that the human race is one of the most extraordinary species he's ever met.

Noah and Vira's heartfelt exchange when Noah is revived.

The Doctor turning up at the end after being thought dead and acknowledging that it's thanks to Rogin's sacrifice.

Noah using his last grip on humanity to lead the other Wyrrn into the self-destructing shuttle and sending Vira a goodbye message just before it explodes. Vira is awed at his act while the Doctor is stunned.

Vira notably becomes less stoic after this point, now that humanity's future has been saved.

Sarah and Harry accompanying the Doctor down to Earth, even though he didn't ask them and was probably hoping to keep them out of danger.

Harry's absolute refusal to leave the Doctor after he's stood on a landmine.

The Doctor hugging Sarah and Harry when they are reunited, thinking they'd been killed.

The "big one", of course, which serves as the ultimate proof of the Doctor's nigh limitless compassion:

Sarah: Well what are you waiting for? The Doctor: Just touch these two strands together and the Daleks are finished. (pause) Have I that right? Sarah: To destroy the Daleks you can't doubt it! The Doctor: But I do. You see, some things could be better with the Daleks. Many future worlds will become allies just because of their fear of the Daleks. Sarah: But - But it isn't like that - The Doctor: But the final responsibility is mine. And mine alone. Listen, if someone who knew the future pointed out a child to you and told you that that child would grow up totally evil, to become a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives, could you then kill that child? Sarah:(pause) We're talking about the Daleks. The most evil creatures ever invented. You must destroy them! You must complete your mission for the Time Lords! The Doctor: Do I have the right? Simply touch one wire against the other, and that's it: the Daleks cease to exist. Hundreds of millions of people, thousands of generations can live without fear, in peace, and never even know the word "Dalek". Sarah: Then why wait? If it was a disease or some sort of bacteria you were destroying you wouldn't hesitate! The Doctor: But if I kill, wipe out a whole intelligent lifeform, then I become like them. I'd be no better than the Daleks. Sarah: But think of all the suffering there will be if you don't do it! (Gharman then appears and tells them that Davros has agreed to negotiate.)The Doctor: I'm grateful to you Gharman. More grateful than I can tell you. (Rips the wires out of the socket.)

The fact that despite the endless war, the majority of Kaleds not only see the Dalek project for what it really is, but actually revolt against it and demand a new leader and a new democratic system.

The final shot of the three friends drifting off together at last:

Sarah: You don't seem too disappointed. We've failed. Haven't we? The Doctor: Failed? No, not really. You see, I know that while the Daleks will create havoc and destruction for millions of years, I know also that out of their evil must come something good.

The anti-matter creature proving itself to be neither pure evil nor a mindless beast by returning Professor Sorensen with his mind and body intact and no memory of the horrors he's faced. The Doctor also makes sure he doesn't go back to his old studies and make the same mistakes again.

Castellan Spandrell refusing to let Engin cut the power to the Matrix while the Doctor is still inside:

Engin: The circuits! Spandrell: No you can't! If you cut the power the Doctor will die in there. Engin: But the circuits are blowing. If there's a fire in the whole panatropic net, thousands of brain patterns will be destroyed forever. Spandrell: But they're not alive, the Doctor is I hope!

Borusa gives the Doctor "his mark" for solving an assassination, exposing a traitor and saving Gallifrey: "Nine out of ten" The Doctor bursts out grinning - that's probably the best mark he's ever gotten.

While Mr. Jago and Detective Litefoot are being held prisoner, Mr. Jago admits he's not very brave and usually very cowardly. Mr. Litefoot is kind enough to point out that everybody gets scared sometimes, and that doesn't make one a coward.

Leela, after having continually given bad suggestions and proven her technological ineptitude over the course of the story, gives the Doctor the idea to take out the Rutan mothership by turning the lighthouse light into a laser beam. The way her face lights up when the Doctor tells her it's a good idea is wonderful.

Leela has unquestioning, absolute faith that The Doctor's superior brain will help them defeat the alien monster. Likewise, The Doctor seems to greatly appreciate her complete faith in him.

Leela's interactions with Cordo, from being the first to try and stop his attempted suicide, to the hug of relief they share when she's rescued from the steamer, to this moment when he volunteers to go with her to break the Doctor out of the correction center when members of the Undercity refuse.

Cordo: I'm not brave and I can't fight, but at least I can show you the way.

The Doctor tells K9 they're going on vacation. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?" "Affirmative! Affirmative! Affirmative!" Pretty much the only time we see K9 get excited about anything; the Doctor even has to calm him down!

That same serial contains one of the most quietly powerful scenes in Doctor Who history:

Unstoffe: Thank you. Thank you for helping me escape. Binro: Oh, it was nothing. Unstoffe: Why'd you do it? Binro: Well, I know what it's like when every man's hand is against you. Unstoffe: Binro the Heretic. Binro: Oh, you heard that. Well, it wasn't much of a heresy, my friend. Just a little thing. Unstoffe: What? Binro: Oh, it was many years ago now. Have you ever looked up at the sky at night, and seen those little lights? Unstoffe: Mmm hmm. Binro: They are not ice crystals. Unstoffe: Go on. Binro: I believe they are suns, just like our own sun. And perhaps each sun has other worlds of its own, just as Ribos is a world. What do you say to that? Unstoffe: It's an interesting theory. Binro: What? Hey, a broad-minded man. Perhaps in the north, they are a different people after all. You see, my friend, I have taken measurements of those little lights and of our sun, and I can prove that Ribos moves. It circles our sun, travelling far away and then returning. That's the reason we have our two seasons, Suntime and Icetime. Unstoffe: Nobody believed you. Binro: Nah, those blockheads. They prefer to believe that Ribos is some sort of battleground over which the Sun Gods and the Ice Gods fight for supremacy. They said that if I did not publicly recant my belief, the gods would destroy our world. Unstoffe: And did you? Binro: In the end. See these hands? Useless for work now. That's why I live here. Unstoffe: Binro, supposing I were to tell you that everything you've just said is absolutely true. There are other worlds, other suns. Binro: You believe it too? Unstoffe: I know it for a fact. You see I come from one of those other worlds. Binro: You? Unstoffe: I thought I should tell you, because one day, even here, in the future, men will turn to each other and say, "Binro was right."

The Doctor exploding at the Captain when he finds out what his collection is. Beware the Silly Ones indeed:

The Captain: My trophies, Doctor. Feast your eyes on them, for they represent an achievement unparalleled in the universe. The Doctor: What are they? Tombstones? Memorials to all the worlds you've destroyed? The Captain: Not memorials. These are the entire remains of the worlds themselves. The Doctor: You come here on the wanton destruction you've wreaked on the universe. The Captain: I come in here to dream of freedom. The Doctor: Did you just say the entire remains of the worlds themselves? The Captain: Yes, Doctor. Each of these small spheres is the crushed remains of a planet. Million upon millions of tons of compressed rock held suspended here by forces beyond the limits of the imagination. Forces that I have generated and harnessed. The Doctor: That's impossible! That amount of matter in so small a space would undergo instant gravitational collapse and form a black hole! The Captain: Precisely. The Doctor: What? But Zanak would be dragged into a gravitational whirlpool. The Captain: Why doesn't it? Because the whole system is so perfectly aligned by the most exquisite exercise in gravitational geometry that every system is balanced out within itself. Which is why we can stand next to billions of tons of super- compressed matter and not even be aware of it. With each new planet I acquire, the forces are realigned but the system remains stable. The Doctor: Then it's the most brilliant piece of astro-gravitational engineering I've ever seen. The concept is simply staggering. Pointless, but staggering. The Captain: I'm gratified that you appreciate it. The Doctor: Appreciate it? Appreciate it? What, you commit mass destruction and murder on a scale that's almost inconceivable and you ask me to appreciate it? Just because you happen to have made a brilliantly conceived toy out of the mummified remains of planets! The Captain: Devil storms, Doctor! It is not a toy! The Doctor: What's it for? Huh? What are you doing? What could possibly be worth all this?

As The Doctor prepares to infiltrate Count Grendel's castle, Farrah offers him his sword. Considering the young man had been, to put it lightly a bit of a Blood Knight. It was an immensely kind gesture on his part.

The Doctor: What time vehicles? Romana: Oh, I don't know, I forget. Type 40. I think. The Doctor: Psst! The TARDIS is a Type 40. Romana: Is it? Oh. The Doctor: Yes. (pause) Psst! You are wonderful. Romana: Me? Wonderful? (The Doctor nods) I suppose I am. I never really thought about it.

Adric hears Nyssa calling his name off in the distance and runs to her. Her reappearance in this scene is completely unexpected and, even though Adric isn't always the most upbeat of companions, he just looks so damn happy...

During the Fourth Doctor's death, he first has visions of his enemies... then all of his companions and friends who've helped him.

Omega proves to be very sympathetic near the end of the story. Once he's gained a new body, he walks around and takes in the sights of Earth. In fact he does absolutely nothing evil at all (save the murder of the groundskeeper to steal his clothes), no killing people on mass, no attempts to kill the Time Lords.

While it looks a little creepy, Omega briefly sharing a smile with the boy as they watch the street performer is surprisingly adorable.

The Doctor, observing Tegan's misery and sets the coordinates for Earth. "You don't have to pretend. It's a shame, of course..." and he talks on through Tegan's protests. The many wonders he'd wanted to show her. ("You still can!") The Eye of Orion... but she wants to return home. ("No I don't!" "You don't?") They sort it out and he agrees to show her the Eye of Orion. As he turns away, Tegan asks if he's not going to reset the coordinates.

The Doctor: No — that's where we're going.

And he gives a rare, genuine, gaps-between-the-teeth smile and walks off.

The Five Doctors

The seminal Doctor Who special "The Five Doctors", wherein the first Doctor sees his following selves and remarks "It's reassuring to know my future is in safe hands."

The same special also has a lovely moment between the Fifth Doctor and his granddaughter, Susan, where the two share a smile after (on his part) many centuries apart.

First: This is Susan.

Fifth: (with evident delight) Yes, I know.

Susan's reuniting with the First Doctor is just as, if not more adorable. One takes a step back stunned, while Susan eagerly embraces him and gives him a hug.

When we first see the Brigadier, he reminisces about The Doctor.

Brigadier: Wonderful chap... all of them.

The Brigadier says this again later, this time to the Doctor's themselves.

Brigadier: (to Three and Five) Splendid fellows, all of you.

Just before the Doctor's depart, all the Doctor's incarnations part on (relatively) good terms.

The Doctor's reunion with his old Time Lord friend Azmael. Once he recognizes Azmael, he scoops the poor old man off his feet in a Bear Hug, he even adds a little spin to it. In fact, it's the first time the Sixth Doctor has done anything that can be called genuinely heartwarming since his appearance.

After spending his entire first appearance insulting Peri both to her face and behind her back. When they must separate, the Sixth Doctor states with complete honesty:

"Such a nice girl."

Season 22

The Mark of the Rani
A little moment towards the end. The Doctor has just disappeared in the Rani's TARDIS and Peri is sulking outside by a coal mine shaft. He rattles a chain and grins at her, and this follows:

Peri: I could have been stuck in the 1800s forever! The Doctor: Did you really believe I'd abandon you?

Also this (paraphrased):

The Rani: (Peri) isn't important. The Doctor: She is to me!

Made all the better when you've seen "The Big Bang" and a similar exchange happens between the Doctor and Rory.

A particularly bittersweet example occurs when the Doctor tries to console Peri upon their learning that the ruined planet Ravalox is actually a far-future Earth:

"Planets come and go. Stars perish. Matter disperses, coalesces, forms into other patterns, other worlds. Nothing can be eternal."

Heartwarming because the Doctor's attempt to comfort her shows how the relationship between the two has warmed since the sniping and bickering of the previous season; bittersweet because although he can see she's upset and genuinely wants to make her feel better, he's still too alien to fully understand how.

The Doctor's reaction to Peri's “death”. He can't comprehend that his friend is not only dead but was killed by his own people. This soon gives way to anger and a grim determination to find out the real purpose of his trial.

The Time Lady presiding over The Doctor's trial is kind enough to inform him that Peri is alive and well, living with King Yrcanos, as warrior queen no less. The Doctor looks immensely relieved and happy even if he can't see her again (like with Jamie and Zoe), at least she's happy and safe.

When Mel and The Doctor bump into each other in The Rani's lab. Both of them spend a few moments not recognizing each other. Once Mel accepts that he is the Doctor, The Doctor gives her an adorable Headbutt of Love.

During the army's assault on "Foreman's Yard", the Dalek appears and starts firing on them. Group Captain Gilmore tells Dr Jensen to get out of there: "Go now Rachel!" It's the only time in the story he refers to her by her first name. The novelisation marks this well and reveals that got married a few years later.

Even though it ends very badly, Ace's budding relationship with Mike is very sweet early on.

In keeping with this being the anniversary season, there are numerous nods to the show's past. As well as obvious ones like the Daleks, there are more subtle ones like Ace's ignorance of 1960s currency and finding the French Revolution book, showing the level of care and devotion the showmakers have put into the story.

The various moments when a character defies Terra Alpha's rigid system and opens up to their emotions: Susie Q's story of her disillusionment; the sniper being unable to shoot to Doctor whilst looking him in the eye; Helen A weeping over Fifi's body.

Ace's anger when Harold V is murdered:

Ace: I wanna nail those scumbags. I wanna make them very, very unhappy. The Doctor: Don't worry Ace. We will.

Susie Q becoming genuinely happy by the end of the story, compared with her suicidal resignation at the beginning.

Even though she's a caricature based on the producers' loathing of Margaret Thatcher, the Doctor still tries to reason with Helen A by the end, to make her see why negative emotions are important. It says a lot for his faith in humanity that even the worst kind of dictator can be appealed to.

When the Doctor and Ace are going after the Cybermen, Ace confesses that she's genuinely scared. The Doctor apologizes and suggests she return to the TARDIS. Despite her fear, Ace doesn't hesitate to refuse.

The Doctor and Ace's joy at being reunited with each other in the caravan and showing it in their own ways: Ace shouting "Doctor!" and the Doctor silently pinching Ace's nose. Also this:

The Doctor: You're absolutely right. Clowns can be creepy.

The Doctor's unshaking faith that Deadbeat knows a lot more than he's letting on, even if Ace is not convinced:

Ace:(laughing) He's off. He's gone. I knew people like him in Perivale. The Doctor:(sharply) Listen Ace! Ace: What to? The Doctor: The answers.

Kingpin's mind being restored by the amulet.

Mags refusing to be swayed by Captains Cook's talk of "survival of the fittest" and only caring for the people he sends of to be executed in the ring.

The Doctor reassuring Mags that he has a plan once he returns to the cage.

When Mags is transformed into a werewolf, the Doctor tries to appeal to the humanity within her rather than resorting to violence.

The Doctor's rage at the Gods of Ragnarok for the way they've turned the Psychic Circus (which used to be a happy place) into a cynical nightmare. Made even better that it's aimed at the BBC executives at the time:

The Doctor: How many people have you destroyed I wonder, before Kingpin was lured down here? Poor Kingpin. That's what you like, isn't it? Taking someone with a touch of individuality and imagination and wearing them down to nothingness in your service. Gods of Ragnarok:Enough. You have said enough.The Doctor:Enough? I've hardly started!

The Doctor assuring Mags that she's finally managed to beat the animal inside her. His tenderness nicely foreshadows his treatment of Ace in Survival.

In a meta-sense, the ending is one of the most uplifting moments in the show's history, because like the Psychic Circus, Doctor Who did survive.

The Doctor finds Ace after Morgaine and her Destroyer threaten her for Excalibur.

The Doctor: Where's Excalibur? Shou Yuing: There was this woman with a pet demon. She seemed to want it very badly... so we gave it to her. The Doctor: Good. Ace: But it wasn't her fault, it—What do you mean "good"? The Doctor: Exotic alien swords are easy to come by. Aces are rare

The Doctor breaking down when he thinks the Brigadier has been killed.

The scene where the Doctor tries to get Ace to open up to him. Not only is it a turning point in their relationship, it's also one of those moments that beautifully encapsulates who the Doctor is:

Ace: Don't you have things you hate? The Doctor: I can't stand burnt toast. I loath bus stations. Terrible places, full of lost luggage and lost souls [...] And then there's unrequited love. And tyranny. Cruelty. Ace: Too right.

And then, after she's told him the story of how her friend's flat was firebombed by neo-Nazis:

Ace: I didn't care anymore. The Doctor: I think you cared a lot, Ace.

And then there's the final scene, when Light has been dispersed:

Ace: I felt it here in a hundred years' time. The Doctor: An evil older than time itself. Ace: So I burnt the house down. The Doctor: Any regrets? (Ace thinks for a moment.)Ace: Yes. The Doctor: Yes? Ace:(lightly) I wish I'd blown it up instead. The Doctor:(grins)Wicked.

Redvers's giddy excitement at the thought of exploring the whole universe.

The Doctor's horror at Commander Millington's plan to eradicate Soviet cities with poison gas. It's more than just your average supervillain plan - it's an exact replica of the Doctor's plans against the Daleks and the Cybermen: let the enemy steal a superweapon which is booby-trapped to destroy them. That the Doctor finds this utterly reprehensible shows he's grown a lot from the man who talked a Dalek into committing suicide.

The Doctor repeating the names of his companions to create a barrier of faith against the Haemovores, even though it's so inaudible that most fans have to have it explained to them. Other fans will take it upon themselves to find whole episode transcripts online.

This scene is especially powerful when you realize exactly what that entails. Other characters in this serial use their faith in things like goodness or justice to hold off the Haemovores, and it just barely stops them advancing. The Doctor thinks about his companions, and the Haemovores actually become frightened and back off. Think about that for a minute. This is the guy who travels all across time and space fighting for truth and justice and the greater good, and yet when he's faced with a situation where having absolute faith in something is the only way to survive, instead of choosing to think of any of those things mentioned, he thinks of his companions. He has more faith in them than in any other thing in the universe.

Captain Bates and Vershinin realising their all just pawns in someone else's game (Millington's, Fenric's, the Doctor's) and joining together as comrades.

After the absolutely brutalBreak Her Heart To Save Her routine he put Ace through at the climax of that episode, the Doctor's gentle "It wasn't true. None of it was true." And the way he gently taps Ace's nose, telling her silently that everything's going to be all right again...

The scene with the Doctor and Ace on the beach has so many beautiful things about it. First there's the Doctor encouraging her to jump into the water (which she's been afraid to do) to let go of her conflicting feelings about her mother. When she gets out, the Doctor is there to meet her on the beach, because he's the Doctor and he's always their for his friends. Ace happily tells him that she's not afraid anymore. And when they see a sign warning of "Dangerous Undercurrents", the Doctor declares: "Not anymore! Nyet!" And then the two friends walk off with their arms around each others' shoulders.

"There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream; people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on, Ace. We've got work to do!"

The scene just before, when Ace - believing that the Doctor is dead - is slumped sadly on the ground, wearing his hat and holding his beloved umbrella. The Doctor merely walks up behind her, gently plucks the hat from her head and murmurs "Mine, I believe." The sheer look of relief and joy on Ace's face hits right in the heart.

Ace standing up directly after that and saying "Let's go home". By which she means the TARDIS, even though the pair arrived back at her home at the start of the serial. After her wretched childhood and after getting lost half-way across the universe, Ace finally feels at home.

The Doctor: Grace, don't you see? I have thirteen lives. Grace: Please! Okay, you're trying to tell me you've come back from the dead. The Doctor: Yes. Grace: No, sorry. The dead stay dead. You can't turn back time. The Doctor: Yes, you can. Grace: I'm not a child; don't talk to me like I'm a child. Only children believe that crap. I am a doctor! The Doctor: But it was a childish dream that made you a doctor. You dreamed you could hold back death. Isn't that true? [Grace looks back at the Doctor for a moment, astonished and then begins to walk away] The Doctor: Don't be sad, Grace. You'll do great things.

While it's brief, one of the first memories to come back to The Doctor is that of a pleasant day from his youth on Gallifrey. A memory of watching shooting stars with his father one night.

The Doctor kissing Grace when he remembers who he is comes across as surprisingly adorable.

Just after Grace and Lee have come back to life, thanks to the TARDIS.

The Doctor: Well, congratulations. You've both been somewhere I've never been.

Grace: It's nothing to be scared of, Doctor.

The Doctor: (smiles) I'm glad to hear it.

The Doctor showing Grace and Lee a view of the universe. Then he shows Grace what Gallifrey looks like.

Near the end of the movie, when Eight and Grace hug.

Series 1 / Season 27

Something of a meta-example in "The End of the World". After Rose sees Lady Cassandra, a woman who has had so much vanity-induced plastic surgery she's literally just a piece of skin stretched over a frame (Rose calls her a "bitchy trampoline.") Cassandra recommends a few procedures for Rose. Rose understandably says she'd rather die, and begins to tear into Cassandra, saying she's never want to become something like her. The Heartwarming comes into play when you realize that Billie Piper suffered from low body image and horrible eating disorders in her teenage years. Knowing that, the scene turns into Piper, as Rose, defiantly putting that awful part of her life behind her.

In-story, there's the Doctor's eulogy / homage to the human race and its ability to survive against the odds despite all doubts and insecurities.

The Doctor: You lot. You spend all your time thinking about dying. Like you're going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids. But you never take the time to imagine the impossible. That maybe you survive.

The end of "The Unquiet Dead", when Charles Dickens, in a moment of self-doubting vulnerability, asks the Doctor whether his books will still be read in the future:

The Doctor: Oh, yes! Charles Dickens: For how long? The Doctor: Forever!

Let's not forget this gem of a line after Rose becomes sad to learn Dickens has about a year of life left.

The Doctor: But in your time he's already dead. And here he is alive. More alive than he has been in years, thanks to us.

There's also the moment in "World War Three" when the Ninth Doctor is beginning to relate his plan to Jackie and Mickey over the phone, and then he stops and looks up at Rose and says, "I could save the world, but lose you."

"Stop worrying. I'll see you in ten seconds' time."

And then that turns into a little bit of a Tear Jerker, as it shows Jackie and Mickey waiting, until Jackie says that it's been ten seconds. Jackie leaves, slowly, and Mickey just... waits there. It's so reminiscent of his whole life until Canary Wharf.

"Father's Day" is just full of Tear Jerkers. But, near the end, when Rose is telling Pete how he was a wonderful father, and then Pete's decision at the end are more mixes of Tearjerker and Heartwarming Moment.

The ending of "The Doctor Dances": "Just this once, Rose. Everybody Lives!" This is the first time in the series since the Fifth Doctor that there hasn't been a single fatality, death being a constant element of Doctor Who. Seeing the Doctor's ecstatic reaction brings home how painful all those deaths have been for him. This also manages to be a Moment Of Awesome. More than a few fans have listed this as their favourite moment of the entire series.

Particularly effective since the episode is set during WWII, a period not traditionally associated with happy endings. Included is the idea all the ailments the victims suffered, like one woman who had lost her leg before, have been healed and are back to the peak of their health.

Also particularly effective since that episode (and the first half of the two-parter, "The Empty Child") contained a fairly good amount of terror, what with Creepy Child vibes and the Nightmare Fuel when you see for the first time exactly what the transformation looks like. Eye Scream, anyone?

Another good one in "The Doctor Dances"; Rose bends the rules a bit and assures Nancy that, even as bad as things are right now, the good guys will win in the end. Just the look of blossoming hope on Nancy's face as she looks at all that's happening and knows that things will get better.

Also at the very very end, when the normally dour Nine is dancing up a storm and grinning like a total goofball.

Not to mention the mood whiplash from when it goes from the Tear Jerker or Jack in his ship, pretty much all ready to die, given up hope, and then... VWORP-VWORP

At the beginning of "The Parting of the Ways", when Rose is brought back onto the TARDIS, the Doctor strides over and hugs her tightly. But it's Jack's greeting that really sums up everything about this trio, as he sweeps her up in a hug and simply says "Welcome home."

"Have a good life. Do that for me, Rose. Have a fantastic life."

"Rose, before I go, I just want to say... you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And you know what? So was I!" Oh, Nine, we hardly knew ye...

Watching that scene in retrospect knowing everything that happens from then on, makes it both more heartwarming and even more of a Tear Jerker.

"Wish I'd never met you, Doctor. I was much better off as a coward."

AND

"Rose? You are worth fighting for."

It really shows the dynamics of their relationships there. It's so cute.

And let's not forget the Big Damn Kiss between Rose and the Doctor, and then the moment when she wakes up and everything seems like it's going back to normal - but then it's not.

Series 2 / Season 28

"The Christmas Invasion". What was earlier portrayed as funny turns into one of these when they're about half an hour away from all out invasion, the Doctor is unconscious and completely out of it, and Jackie is just sitting with him, in a stark contrast to their usual relationship, trying to get him to tell them what's wrong with him and how they can help. She calls him sweetheart. And falls asleep besides him.

When Rose says "Help me" in the Doctor's ear while he's asleep from post-regenerative trauma, he springs awake IMMEDIATELY and stops a killer Christmas tree.

Just as The Doctor is promising that the journey for him and Rose is going to be great, he doesn't say Brilliant or fun or anything else. He says it's going to be fantastic. The Ninth Doctor, showing up one last time to let us know it's all going to be alright.

"New Earth" drew happy tears from the moment the lever was pulled onwards. It was at that moment that all of the fear and doubt about Tennant replacing Eccleston melted away in a flood of happy tears.

When one of the recently cured and, to be honest, not "all there" new humans (part of a subspecies which has spent their entire lives being used as lab rats for every disease known to mankind, fed through tubes, and have never even been touched) reaches out to the Doctor for a hug, and he obliges immediately... Cue the d'awwww.

"Can I just say-travelling with you-I love it."

From "Tooth and Claw":

Ten rushing in to save Rose after realizing they have been about to be bit and turned into werewolves. He still stops and stares at the werewolf, calling it beautiful, before noticing how much trouble he is in and rushing out of the room

Madame de Pompadour: ''"But you and I both know, don't we, Rose? The Doctor is worth the monsters."

"The Impossible Planet",

The Doctor has an adorable Humans Are Special moment with the acting Captain who is deeply in need of some reassurance.

"Just stand there, because I'm going to...hug you, is that all right?"

Rose kissing the Doctor through his helmet visor before he goes into the Impossible Planet's core.

The Tenth Doctor's "I believe in her" speech said straight to the Devil himself as he knocks the Impossible Planet from orbit.

The Doctor:"If I believe in one thing, just one thing... I believe in her."

Right at the end, possibly overlapping with Tear Jerker for some, the captain starts listing the dead and we hear as he begins 'Also, Ood 1 Alpha 1'. After all the stuff about slave races and everything the series ever said about the badness of humans, the captain takes the time to list every single Ood and saying they died with honours.

For such a (comparatively) silly, lighthearted Breather Episode, "Love & Monsters" can be surprisingly heartwarming. Especially when you find out that the members of LInDA (the sweet, eccentric, Adorkable ones, not VictorKennedy) were based off the show's fandom.

"Turns out I've had the most terrible things happen. And the most brilliant things. And sometimes, well, I can't tell the difference. They're all the same thing. They're...they're just me. You know, Stephen King said once, he said, 'salvation and damnation are the same thing.' And I never knew what he meant. But I do now. [...] When you're a kid, they tell you it's all...grow up. Get a job. Get married. Get a house. Have a kid, and that's it. But the truth is, the world is so much stranger than that. It's so much darker. And so much madder. And so much better. "

Jackie swearing that she will never let Rose down, and will protect both Rose and the Doctor.

In "Fear Her", when Chloe and her mother defeat the drawing of Chloe's abusive father (and re-bond in the process) by singing together.

"Doomsday":

The scene where Jackie and Alternate Pete run into each other. First there's an awkward moment where they contemplate that the other is not 'their' Pete or Jackie; then they decide they just don't care and hug each other. Awwwww...

The Doctor and Rose's last meeting is this bittersweet thing; it's goodbye but it's also closure and doubles as a Tear Jerker.

The bit at the end, where the Doctor is describing Gallifrey to Martha. Same effect in "The Sound of Drums", when we get to actually see it. It's aided by the absolutely gorgeous music that plays in both scenes (titled "This Is Gallifrey: Our Childhood, Our Home", for the curious).

The Doctor with the kittens.

We see as many as three married couples in this episode and they're all raising families in their car without tearing their hair out.

The ending of "Evolution of the Daleks", when Laszlo's dying:

Tallulah: Doctor, can't you do somethin'? The Doctor: Oh, Tallulah with three Ls and an H... just you watch me. What do I need? Oh, I don't know, how about a great big genetic laboratory? Oh look, I've got one. Laszlo, just you hold on. There've been too many deaths today. Way too many people have died. Brand new creatures and wise old men and age-old enemies. And I'm telling you. I'm telling you right now, I am not having one more death! Got that? Not one! Tallulah? Out of the way. The Doctor is in.

Tallulah's reaction to Laszlo after he's been deformed, she just looks at him so tenderly as she strokes his face.

The Tenth Doctor thanking Martha at the end of "The Family of Blood" for looking after him.

The whole montage of John imagining himself marrying Joan and growing old with her.

Professor Yana introduces himself to The Doctor at the beginning of "Utopia", not in a calm and dignified fashion, but by approaching as giddy as a child on Christmas. Then after he asks The Doctor if he is a Doctor, and the Doctor says yes. Yana happily pulls The Doctor along behind him, while The Doctor himself just smiles and rolls with it. The fact that "This is Gallifrey" gently plays as Yana approaches just makes him all the more adorable. Sadly the music seems to have also beenForeshadowing the return of The Master.

The beginning of the Master's defeat in "Last of the Time Lords": the Doctor, having absorbed the power of the Master's psychic field via Clap Your Hands If You Believe, is advancing on the Master, who is screaming, crying, and clawing at the walls in fear of the epic wrath of God that is about to descend on him in retribution for all the horrible things he's done, and the Doctor proceeds to give him a hug. Shortly thereafter it turns into a first-rate Alas, Poor Villain.

Martha leaving her phone with the Doctor as she leaves the TARDIS, telling him that the very minute it rings, he'd better answer. He did.

Series 4 / Season 30

The Tenth Doctor's speech to the Fifth Doctor, in which he says that he loved being him as he felt young and exciting, and how in his current regeneration he is trying to live up to him and has copied some of his traits.

Especially when you know that it was David Tennant himself talking there: he was finally getting to work with the man he idolized as a child, the man who made him realize that not only did he want to be an actor himself—he wanted to be the actor who played The Doctor.

Part of what makes the final scene so absolutely adorable is you're not sure where the line is drawn. After a while, you're not sure if the Tenth Doctor is fanboying to the Fifth Doctor, if David Tennant is fanboying to the Fifth Doctor, or if David Tennant is fanboying to Peter Davison, but that just makes it all the more endearing.

And on top of all this, Davison and Tennant are in-laws because of Tennant's marriage to Georgia Moffet! It can be viewed as a compliment to his own extended family.

"Voyage of the Damned"

Astrid's send off:

The Doctor:Astrid Peth, citizen of Sto, the woman who looked at the stars and dreamt of travelling... there is an old tradition. Now you can travel forever. You're not falling, Astrid. You're flying.

"NO! Bannakaffalata STOP! Bannakaffalata PROUD! Bannakaffalata... CYBORG!" also qualifies as a Crowning Moment of Awesome because it's a "World of Cardboard" Speech too.

Mister Copper can have a house, with a garden! And a kitchen! With plates! He's skipping in his final scene.

Morvin when Foon confesses how she won the tickets.

Morvin:You drive me barmy. I don't half love you, Mrs Van Hoff.

"Partners in Crime".

Wilf's cheering and little happy dance when Donna flies off with the Doctor in. Really, any of Donna and Wilf's interactions. It's a Daddy's Girl like relationship.

Donna is extremely happy to see The Doctor again, and the feeling is mutual. Despite flying all over time and space, The Doctor remembers his first encounter with Donna.

The Doctor: Just like old times!

The ending to "The Fires of Pompeii", where the Doctor goes back to save Caecilius and his family, admits to Donna that she was right — sometimes he needs someone to stop him — and seeing the family six months later, happy and successful, giving thanks to the Doctor and Donna. Not to mention the virtual fourth-wall breaking moment from the Doctor:

The Doctor:Come with me.

Virtually anything about the ending of one of the most horrifying episodes, "Planet of the Ood".

The Ood's liberation.

And the Ood song, although beginning as a massiveTear Jerker, slowly ends up becoming one of the most uplifting tracks ever.

"You will never be forgotten. Our children will sing of the Doctor Donna. And our children's children. And the wind and the snow and the ice will carry your names forever."

In "The Sontaran Stratagem" Martha saying she "learnt from the best" to the Doctor and later "I can see why he [The Doctor] likes you" to Donna.

When Donna's grandfather tells the Doctor to take care of Donna, he replies that it's Donna who's been taking care of him.

In "The Doctor's Daughter," when Jenny "gets better" in the epilogue, despite the fact that the cheap (and expected) emotional shot would have been to let it end just as it originally did.

And that's after we've watched the Doctor go from refusing to acknowledge Jenny's existence to accepting her as his daughter and inviting her to travel with him.

"You're going to be great. You're going to be more than great, you're going to be amazing!"

Not to mention when Jenny has the opportunity to shoot Cobb but finds herself unable to do it. When she gets back to the Doctor, she excitedly tells him that she couldn't kill him and the Doctor hugs her, every bit the proud papa.

The end to "Forest of the Dead" when the Doctor literally saves River Song:

"When you run with the Doctor, it feels like it'll never end. But however hard you try you can't run forever. Everybody knows that everybody dies and nobody knows it like the Doctor. But I do think that all the skies of all the worlds might just turn dark if he ever for one moment, accepts it. Everybody knows that everybody dies. But not every day. Not today. Some days are special. Some days are so, so blessed. Some days, nobody dies at all. Now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair and the Doctor comes to call, everybody lives.

River and the Doctor. Just... River and the Doctor. From "I trust that man to the end of the universe - and actually, we've been" to "Sweetie, I need you" to "Well. You always dance at weddings, don't you?". But the very, very sweetest?

The Doctor: Trust me? River: Always.

The singalong scene in "Turn Left". That is, until it gets cut short by gunfire.

A blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment at the end of the episode, where Donna is querying absent-mindedly why she was chosen as the focal point of the alternate universe.

The opening, where the Doctor and Donna are just goofing about on an alien planet. No chases, no monsters, no terror, just two friends hanging out and doing whatever they feel like. Shame it's all downhill from there for Donna...

A ten minute section of "The Stolen Earth". First the hug between Martha and her mum (and the latter's response, "You came home. At the end of the world, you came back to me.") Then Harriet Jones's return - especially her admitting she'll die trying to save the Earth. Then the whole "Calling the Doctor" scene. Then Harriet's theme coming in full blast when she says her last words. Then the Doctor's conversation with his companions.

Harriet Jones herself, despite every thing The Doctor did to her, ruining her career over a fairly petty disagreement, treating her like a monster. She was still one-hundred percent loyal to him and willingly risked her life to call him for help.

Then again about five minutes later when they made a Meadow Run that wasn't full of Narm.

Until twenty seconds later when the Dalek shows up and the scene turns into the ending of West Side Story.

The Subwave system was developed by whom? Mr. Copper! One assumes that after he had sufficiently loaded up on plates the nice fake historian dedicated his winnings to protecting the planet whose history he so enjoyed and developed the one thing that helped bring the man who saved his life back to Earth one more time.

From "Journey's End", the Children of Time flying the TARDIS the way it's meant to be flown, towing Earth home, and then everybody hugs. The music playing over it just makes it feel perfect.

Wilfred Mott's "I'll look up at the stars, and think of you" at the end of "Journey's End" is heartwarming, awesome, and Tear Jerker all in one. The brilliant character portrayal by Bernard Cribbins (genuine voice-faltering and tears) made the scene extraordinary.

Jackson Lake: I know that man, that Doctor on high. And I know that he has done this deed a thousand times, but not once, no sir, not once has he ever been thanked. But no more, for I say to you that on this Christmas morn: Bravo, sir! BRAVO!!!

Especially heartwarming is that you have to consider this came on the tail of the events of "Midnight" and "Journey's End". After such emotional gut-punches, the Tenth Doctor finds himself being openly cheered on and applauded by a thankful populace. The look of dawning gratitude and joy on his face just says it all.

Earlier on, even AFTER Jackson Lake had it proven to him he wasn't the Doctor, but merely a man who had been convinced he was, the real deal tells the despondent Lake that his memories might have been altered, but the courage and determination he showed in the role was above and beyond what he would have expected from anyone, more or less implying he would have considered Lake a worthy successor in any regard.

Implying? He outright said! "Jackson, if anyone had to be the Doctor... I'm glad it was you."

Jackson remembering that he has a son, and discovering soon after that he's still alive. After everything he's lost he still gets at least one part of his family back.

The Doctor's interactions with UNIT personnel in "Planet of the Dead". It's humanizing for all parties involved.

Especially with Malcolm. To put it in context, Malcolm is a Fan Boy for the Doctor, and talking to him on the phone is obviously a massive dream come true. However, the really heartwarming moment happens during their first talk:

Even before that, when the passengers of the 200 are starting to panic because they're trapped on an alien world with seemingly no hope of getting back, and death approaching in some unknown form. For a minute, it looks like it's going to be a repeat of "Midnight". But then the Tenth Doctor interrupts, asking each of the passengers in turn what they were planning to do when they got home. It's pretty casual stuff—going home, watching TV, cooking up dinner, and so on. But the Doctor's response to all that?

The Doctor: "...Just think of that. Because that planet out there, with three suns, a wormhole, and alien sand; that planet is nothing. You hear me, nothing. Compared to all those things waiting for you, back home...food, home, people. Hold onto that. Because we're going to get there. I promise."

And even more heartwarming? He was true to his word. Everyone on that bus (with the exception of the bus driver, who died prior to this speech) made it back alive. After some of his previous adventures, that's a wonderful achievement.

The End of Time Part Two, Tennant's last hurrah as the Doctor, Ten spends his last few hours going back and revisiting all previous companions. Each with a kind of sad good-bye. And Ten calls that his reward, seeing them happy and safe. Aww... Also a Tear Jerker though, so have tissues ready.

Worth particular mention is the Doctor's visit to Rose before she meets the Doctor. Aww...

The Doctor: I think you're going to have a really great year.

Even more so when you realize that, out of all the people he's loved and gone to see, the only visit that's made him smile is Rose.

Just that? How about the completely non-verbal scene between Ten and Jack in the alien bar? Seriously, just look at Jack's state when the Doctor finds him... he's not Narmy about it, but you just know this is hot on the heels of the utter horror that was Children of Earth, and he's completely broken...until he gets that note from the Doctor. Seeing his dialogue with Midshipman Alonso, and watching the old Jack everyone knew and loved start to come back, made this Last Minute Hookup a mix of this and Fridge Brilliance.

Apply some Fridge Logic to his last meeting with Donna (Well, Donna's parents.) He went back in time to borrow a quid from Geoffrey Noble (Donna's late father) and bought Donna a lottery ticket so Donna could live Wealthy Ever After. He was able to let Donna's father buy her a wedding present even after he passed away.

How about his farewell to Sarah Jane? The last heroic act the Tenth Doctor ever performed was to save her son from being hit by a car. That's a really big deal. And no words are exchanged between the Doctor and Sarah. No words are needed. The way he smiles at her and waves and the knowing look on her face....it just speaks volumes about the chemistry those two have. Even more so when you consider that, among all the people he visited (at least the ones shown on screen), she was probably one of the only ones who actually realized what was about to happen.

The episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures, "Death of the Doctor", turned that whole sequence into an even bigger moment of heartwarming. The Doctor tells Jo Grant that he didn't just revisit all the companions from his tenth incarnation. He revisited all of them, every single one, from his first life to his tenth. And given that he visited the descendant of someone who wasn't even a companion, who knows how many people important to him he may have appeared to...

"We will sing to you, Doctor. The universe will sing you to your sleep."

Every single one of the Tenth Doctor and Wilfred Mott's scenes together. Each scene reminded viewers why they loved Tennant's Doctor so much and showed what an awesome character Wilf is, and it gave them a great, sweet relationship.

Wilf: Nine hundred years? We must look like ants to you. The Doctor: I think you look like giants.

One that truly stood out from Part 1:

The Doctor: I'm going to die. Wilf: So am I, one of these days. The Doctor: Don't you dare! Wilf: Alright, I'll try not to.

And from Part 2:

Wilf: You let him go, you swine! The Master:(to the Doctor) Oh, your dad's still kicking up a fuss. Wilf: No, but I'd be proud if I was!

And:

The Doctor: I'd be proud. Wilf: Of what? The Doctor: If you were my dad.

The whole scene, really. Damn you, Wilf!

"Wilfred. It's my honour."

The Doctor sacrificing himself to save Wilf is made even more heartwarming by the fact that he doesn't act like the sacrifice is nothing to him, like he sometimes does. When he realizes that it's his only option, he starts ranting about how it's not fair, how his life should be worth more, and seems to be getting dangerously close to another "Time Lord Victorious" moment, which the last episode showed us can happen all too easily... and then he pulls himself together, goes ahead, and makes the sacrifice anyway.

Also when they first arrive on the Vinvocci ship. Wilf has spent his entire life staring at the stars and hoping to see them (an impossible dream for all but a select few.) Now he is, and he's staring out the window at planet Earth, completely overwhelmed. Bonus points to the Doctor, who, despite the seriousness of the situation, takes the time to gently lead Wilf away from the window. Those two have the amazing ability to do some seriously gut-wrenching scenes.

Also in The End of Time Part 2:

The Master: "Get out of the way."

And earlier in the episode, when Rassilon is about to destroy the Master.

Click.

This wonderful moment between the Doctor and the Master in Part 1?:

The Doctor: You're a genius. You're stone cold brilliant, you are, I swear, you really are. But you could be so much more. You could be beautiful. With a mind like that, we could travel the stars. It would be my honour. 'Cause you don't need to own the universe, just see it. Have the privilege of seeing the whole of time and space. That's ownership enough. The Master: Would it stop then? The noise in my head? The Doctor: I can help. The Master: I don't know what I'd be without that noise. The Doctor: I wonder what I'd be without you.

The Doctor pointing the gun at the Master and saying, "Get out of the way." The Master's shocked, hurt face...then his smile. It says more than words ever could.

And that moment when Donna is being menaced by the copies of the Master in the streets behind her house. She collapses, releasing a blast of energy that knocks the Masters out. The Doctor assures Wilf that she's fine, just sleeping.

The Doctor: Did you really think I'd leave my best friend without a defense?

God damn you, Russell T Davies.

A slightly meta-example when the Doctor goes to visit Joan Redfern's grandaughter, her name is given as 'Verity Newman'. This is a nod to the creators of the original Dr Who series: Verity Lambert and Sydney Newman. Awww! Very sweet on Russell T Davies' part to acknowledge them.

'This song is ending, but the story never ends'. His 'song' may be ending, but the 'story' of the Doctor, across all his incarnations, never will.

The Ood standing by the Doctor to sing for him as he regenerates.

"The universe will sing you to your sleep."

Series 5 / Season 31

The part in "The Eleventh Hour" where the aliens scan Earth and confirm that it's not a threat  almost the counterpoint to the Tenth Doctor's Humans Are Bastards spiel to Harriet Jones.

Atraxi: You are not of this race. Doctor: No...but I've put a lot of work into it.

Add this to the episode's run through of all ten previous Doctors leading up to the present day.

Earlier in the episode when the Doctor is handcuffed to the radiator and asking older-Amy what happened to Amelia and if she's okay. The sheer depth of concern he had for this little girl he'd only just met and barely knew.

Also, the Doctor's "just trust me for twenty minutes" speech, and giving Amy back the apple.

And when you think about it, that scene was virtually shot in real time. So it wasn't just Amy who had to believe in this Doctor for twenty minutes, it was the audience, some of whom had yet to be won over by Tennant's replacement. We were asked to believe for just that short time, that this guy was up to the task. He was.

Near the ending of that episode, after the Atraxi have fled and the Doctor gives his "sexy" new TARDIS a spin. Cut to seven-year-old Amelia still waiting in the garden as the sun rises. She looks up and smiles as she hears the TARDIS materializing.

A retro-active Tear Jerker now that we've seen "The Angels Take Manhattan".

The scene where Amy finally sees the inside of the TARDIS is full of beautiful, childlike wonderment.

The "Oh, you sexy thing!" was a Heartwarmer all on its own, along with the whisper of "thanks, dear," when the TARDIS presents the Doctor with his new sonic screwdriver. Companions come and go, but the TARDIS will always be the girl who stole the Doctor's hearts.

The Doctor's line "All of time and space. Everything that ever happened or ever will. Where do you want to start?". After a while, you realize he isn't just asking Amy. He's asking us to join him on his incredible adventures. And I'll be damned if we're not going to say yes.

"The Beast Below": Hundreds of years previous, when a dying UK was approached by a Star-Whale, a Queen authorized its capture and torture, to coerce it to carry the country, now a space colony, on its back. Most of the population chose to be mind-wiped of the info, for the sake of the colony, and legends instead arose of the Star-Whale's being dangerous, including a rhyme used to scare children. Later, though, after seeing parallels between its initial arrival and the Doctor's behavior throughout the episode, Amy releases the Star-Whale, having realized it was "very old, and very kind," had actually approached so that it could help, and need never have been forced. Just before the closing credits, over footage of the now-loved-and-revered Star Whale still carrying the colony, Amy recites the new legend:

In bed above, we're deep asleep while greater love lies further deep this dream must end, this world must know we all depend on the Beast Below.

The Doctor's conclusion that something is very, very wrong because no-one is comforting a single crying little girl, and the fact that he instantly noticed this fact. Also his immediate flouting of his "rules" to comfort her. Which just goes to show how very little (or how very much) it takes to make him break the rules of time travel.

Amy Pond: You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets... unless there's children crying? Doctor: Yes.

While it crosses over into Tearjerker territory, the Doctor's reasoning behind why it was so very wrong for that one little girl to be crying pulls on the heart in all the right ways.

"Children cry because they want attention—because they're hurt, or scared. When a child cries silently it's because they just can't stop. Every parent knows that."

In "Victory of the Daleks" Winston Churchill to the android Bracewell, "Now, I don't give a damn if you're a machine, Bracewell... Are you a man?" The question is asked more or less the whole way through, and the fate of earth depended on the answer. By the end of the episode the answer is yes enough and the Doctor is able to leave Bracewell behind to enjoy his thoroughly human life. Such a shockingly happy ending for an AI.

The way the Doctor and Amy leave him at the end, telling him that while he must be deactivated since he is Dalek technology, he still has half an hour to get his affairs in order. Remember how long five minutes are by the Doctor's standpoint...

Watch that scene again. Bracewell is the one who brings up the matter of deactivation; the Doctor and Amy had no intention of doing so and just wanted to say goodbye.

"The Time of Angels":

Amy begs the Doctor to leave her and go save the others when she thinks her hand has turned to stone and the Angels are rapidly approaching. The Doctor refuses to leave her, leading to this exchange:

Amy: You've got to go. Those people up there will die without you. If you stay here with me you've as good as killed them. The Doctor: Amy Pond, you are magnificent, and I'm sorry. Amy Pond:(steeling herself for death) It's okay. I understand. You've got to leave me. The Doctor: Oh, no, I'm not leaving you. Never. I'm sorry for this. (bites her hand; she yelps in pain and jerks it away) Ha! See? Not stone. Now run.

Also, when Amy is attacked by (and defeats) an Angel, and is understandably a little freaked out:

The Doctor: River, hug Amy. Amy: Why? The Doctor: Because I'm busy.

Amy and the Doctor have been doing a fair bit of forehead pressing and forehead kissing and it's just too cute for words. Especially in "Flesh and Stone" where Amy is stuck sat in the middle of a dangerous forest, and can't open her eyes without dying on the spot, and they have to just leave her with the soldiers otherwise she'd be more at risk on the move. The Doctor vanishes for a moment, then comes back and takes her hands and asks her, once again, to trust him. Not even the ending of the episode could possibly ruin that scene.

Becomes something of a tearjerker in "The Big Bang", when it's revealed that it's the future Doctor desperately trying to get her to remember him before he's essentially erased from existence.

Amy's Choice:

The moment when Amy asks why the psychic spores made a dark side of the Doctor but not her. "Well, if they tried to feed off of you two, they'd starve. I choose my companions with great care."

Additionally, when they ask why the psychic spores made a dark side of the Doctor but not them. "Well, if they tried to feed off of you two, they'd starve. I choose my companions with great care."

Even though it clearly signed his death warrant over and over again, Rory telling Alaya that he trusts the Doctor with his life.

In "Cold Blood", Nasreen staying in suspended animation with a mutating Tony, with both promising to help with future negotiations between Humans and Silurians.

A bit of a Fridge heartwarming moment. The Doctor sets the reanimation timer for a thousand years. Several short stories and novellas set in the future show the Reptiles as fully recognized inhabitants of Earth alongside humanity. After all those conflicts and close calls throughout the show's history, it's heartwarming to know the two races do eventually have a future together.

The ending of "Vincent and the Doctor": after Vincent van Gogh spends the entire episode casually talking about how terrible his paintings are and how no-one will ever want them, the Doctor bends the rules and takes him forward in time to see his work displayed in an art gallery and hear an expert call him 'the greatest artist of all time'. Vincent cries tears of joy. Shortly thereafter, it's revealed that he dedicated one of his paintings to Amy.

He dedicates the Sunflowers to Amy. The. Sunflowers.

This becomes quite the Tearjerker in "The Pandorica Opens", first half of the finale, where we realise that Vincent's visions have shown him not only the potential end of all things (which nobody is ever going to believe since it's coming from him), but also the TARDIS exploding and, he likely believes, killing the only two friends who ever accepted him. It doesn't take much to realise that this may well have been the catastrophe which caused his relapse after the encouragement the Doctor offered him in Vincent. And one of his last acts of conscious sanity? He paints the TARDIS, exploding, in his characteristically beautiful, but haunting way.

He committed suicide because he thought his friends had died. In showing up, and helping him overcome at least a part of his depression by being his friends, the Doctor and Amy caused his death.

The death of the Krafayis. Think about it. The Doctor is comforting an accidentally-child-killing creature that was just blind, scared, and alone and he can't even SEE it. Because it's invisible.

The stargazing.

The Doctor: I've seen many things, my friend, but you're right- nothing quite as wonderful as the things you see.

Also Visual Effects Of Awesome, as the three of them hold hands and look up... and the night sky transforms into The Starry Night.

When Amy and the Doctor stop in front of Van Gogh's Sunflowers;

Amy: We didn't make a difference at all. The Doctor: I wouldn't say that. The Doctor: The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. [Amy starts tearing up] Hey. [hugs Amy] The Doctor: The good things don't always soften the bad things, but vice-versa, the bad things don't necessarily spoil the good things and make them unimportant. And we definitely added to his pile of good things. And, if you look carefully, maybe we did indeed make a couple of little changes. Amy: No Krafayis. The Doctor: No Krafayis. (Amy sees a change in the "Sunflowers" painting. It has For Amy, Vincent written on the vase.) Amy: If we had gotten married, our children would have had very red hair. The ultimate ginger. The Doctor: The ultimate ginge! Amy (quietly): Brighter than sunflowers.

"For God's sake, kiss the girl!"

When Eleven gives Rory back the ring in "The Pandorica Opens". The fact that Rory is back at all.

Which is then viciously subverted as what would be a truly CMoH when Amy finally remembers Rory is made horribly sad by the fact that he is fighting his transformation into a murderous Auton, loses control and shoots her.

"The Big Bang": In its dying moment, the TARDIS itself commits one last heroic act: it explodes across every single point in time simultaneously, keeping Earth warm for the entirety of its existence...

Not only that, the TARDIS instigated a time loop inside itself to save River. While it only resulted in River running into a rock wall and not making it to the Doctor, the TARDIS was doing everything she could to save her only child.

Auton-Rory spends just shy of 2,000 years protecting a box. Cultures rise and fall around him, and he is nothing more than a historical curiosity associated with another historical curiosity. He never wavers, he never falters, he never leaves the Pandorica. He dragged the Pandorica out of a German firebombing, knowing that if he ever was damaged, he could never, ever be repaired. The Doctor warned Rory that he would probably be mad by the time the Doctor's gambit reached its end. But Rory? He was sane. He was unharmed. And he was still... right... there. Working security for the Pandorica Exhibition, keeping Amy safe. Like he did for two thousand years.

Even before Amy's memory of the Doctor is triggered, she's wearing a red necklace. Look closely. It's an apple.

At the wedding party, Amy half-lying in Rory's arms while they watch the Doctor dance like a monkey, and he kisses her hair, and it's just total and utter contentment.

Earlier on the phone, when she tells him she loves him — the first time she's said it all season — in a casual tone that makes it obvious that in the "fixed" universe she says it all the time.

Prior to the rewind, the Doctor never asks Amy to remember him. He wants her to concentrate the whole of her being on remembering the family she should have had instead.

And it's made even more heartwarming/breaking by his bedraggled state: In what he and Amy both think is the last conversation they'll ever have, he's her Raggedy Doctor again.

This is the first genuinely, completely Happy Ending of the season finales -first series the Doctor regenerates, everyone on the station dies except Jack who now has to live forever after just being abandoned, second series he loses Rose to another dimension, third series he's the last of his kind again and Martha leaves him probably with a horrible case of Post Traumatic Stress, fourth season the fate of Donna. Specials? He gets told he's going to die, goes crazy, and finally regenerates. But now we have a wedding, a celebration, silly dancing, the Doctor saved via telling a story, and a death count into the minuses. Repeat, the minuses— people survive this story who were already dead when it started. Only Steven Moffat could pull that off in a Doctor Who finale. Hats off to the man.

Rory punching the Doctor for telling him that Amy wasn't more important that the rest of the universe and the Doctor's reaction to getting punched.

The Doctor: Your girlfriend isn't more important than the whole universe— *thwack*Rory: SHE IS TO ME! The Doctor: WELCOME BACK RORY WILLIAMS!

The end of "The Big Bang":

Doctor: This will have to be goodbye. Amy: Yeah, I think it's goodbye. [to Rory] Don't you think it's goodbye? Rory:Definitely goodbye. [Amy opens the TARDIS door and waves to the world.] Amy: Goodbye!

Amy's face of pure joy as she finally gets her happy ending, and sets off in the TARDIS with both Rory AND The Doctor. See for yourself.

Series 6 / Season 32

"A Christmas Carol". All of it. All of it.

One in particular, though, for its universal appeal and revelation of just who the Doctor is. After being told a young woman is "nobody important," he immediately becomes more interested, because, as he says "In over nine hundred years of time and space I've never met anyone who wasn't important."

This represents a large amount of Character Development from Ten's comments about the significance of certain people in "The Waters of Mars". He seems to have learned his lesson about the "Time Lord Victorious" thing.

The star cruiser is about to crash, killing the thousands on board. They are losing control and suddenly the most lovely singing is heard and the clouds stabilize. "Can you land?" "I can even land well."

Also the look on Kazran's face as the beautiful love of his life sings to him for the last time.

"Day of the Moon":

When Amy calls Rory "Stupid face." The previous time he heard her use the phrase telling "stupid face" she loved him he didn't know whom she was speaking to.

Rory's statement of "She can always hear me" when Amy has been kidnapped.

Immediately followed by a callback to his actions in the finale of last season: "Wherever she is, she always knows that I am coming for her—do you understand me? Always."

Amy telling the Doctor that he's her best friend.

During the finale of "The Curse of the Black Spot" when they're left with a choice of either leaving Rory on the alien ship or risking his death by drowning since the ship is basically keeping him alive, he opts to leave, telling them that all they have to do is resucitate him when they get back. He wants the person who does it to be Amy, not the Doctor, for one specific reason.

Rory: Because I know you'll never give up.

It's even more meaningful when you remember Rory's a nurse. Accuracy aside, we're supposed to think that he surely knows the odds but he still trusts her more than the Doctor. For everyone who has ever wondered why Rory was willing to wait 2000 years for a girl that a number of people don't think deserved him? This whole damn scene is the answer.

That CPR was second in inaccuracy in this show only to the time Martha (a freaking Doctor) did it when the problem was blood loss, and yet still the Doctor's terrified reaction while they're trying to resuscitate him is still an utter tearjerker—until Amy succeeds and the heartwarming kicks in.

Doctor: You didn’t always take me around to where I’ve wanted to go. Idris/TARDIS: No, but I always took you where you needed to go.

A severely understated one is the Doctor's reaction upon receiving the Corsair's distress signal. Not only is there another Time Lord still out there, it's one of his friends. Too bad it's a trap.

Especially after getting his era's control room destroyed again, Russell T Davies' "Ood created by Russell T Davies" credit is quite the touching memento of his legacy, when you realise that sort of thing's normally only seen on classic series monsters such as Sontarans or Daleks.

When Amy is trying to communicate the meaning of the password to the TARDIS systems to access the secondary control room, her mental imprint of the word 'delight' is her and Rory's wedding day.

When Idris mentions "the pretty one," the Doctor assumes she means Amy, and instead she communicates to Rory, the best-hearted of the trio.

The exchange when the TARDIS, inside the body of Idris, makes the Doctor understand just who she is.

Idris/TARDIS: I was already a museum piece when you were young. And the first time you touched my console you said— The Doctor: I said you were the most beautiful thing I'd ever known. Idris/TARDIS: And then you stole me. And I stole you. The Doctor: I borrowed you. Idris/TARDIS: "Borrowing" implies the eventual intention to return the thing that was taken. What makes you think I would ever give you back? The Doctor: You're the TARDIS? My TARDIS? Idris/TARDIS: My Doctor.

Idris/TARDIS: Are all people like this? The Doctor: Like what? Idris/TARDIS: So much bigger on the inside.

The episode in general. Despite all the Mood Whiplash of the episode, the Doctor has something new and positive at the end: the assurance that, no matter what, the TARDIS is there and listening, and always has been. Nine was alone at the end of the Time War? Ten regenerated alone? Nope, the TARDIS was there. And she'll be there when all of his companions leave. Sure, we knew that before, but this is an entirely new perspective on their relationship.

The ending, where the TARDIS controls flare back to life, just a second ago the Doctor thinks she's can't hear him, then the Doctor is practically dancing around the console room with the biggest grin on his face!

In "The Rebel Flesh", Rory giving the upset and confused Ganger Jennifer a hug.

At the end of "The Almost People", the humans and (most of) the Gangers finally accepting that they shouldn't be fighting, and the fact that the survivors included two Gangers, who were treated no differently to the human survivor. A particularly heartwarming moment (mixed with a Tear Jerker) comes when the dying Original!Jimmy gives his Ganger permission to go home and be a father to his son.

That the Doctor had unquestioning, absolute faith in his Ganger, and that likewise, his Ganger had complete faith in the Doctor.

"We are not talking about an experiment that needs to be mopped up. We are talking about sacred life. Everybody clear on that? Everybody? Good."

"A Good Man Goes To War" contains more of these moment than other moments.

At the beginning, Moffat kind of screws with the audience's heads a little bit, before Amy delivers on the heartwarming to her newborn daughter Melody:

Amy: He's the last of his kind. He looks young but he's lived for hundreds and hundreds of years. And wherever they take you, Melody, however scared you are, I promise you, you'll never be alone. Because this man is your father. He has a name, but the people of our world know him better... as the Last Centurion.

When River Song is revealed to be Melody Pond, the sheer joy on the Doctor's face as he realizes, among other things, that he is no longer the last Time Lord is a CMOH if anything is.

Rory brings Melody to his wife and starts to cry from sheer joy.

Rory: Oh God, I was gonna be cool. I wanted to be cool, look at me.

The scene just before that is wonderful, too — if only because although Rory is often a hero, he hardly ever gets to make really cool, dramatic, heroic gestures. In this episode, however, he gets to be the real live knight in shining armor that we always suspected he was:

Amy: They took her, Rory. They took our baby away. Rory: (Walks in holding the baby) Now, Mrs. Williams, you know that that is never, ever, ever going to happen.

The Doctor letting Amy and Rory's daughter Melody use his crib is several kinds of heartwarming.

And for those of us who suspect he was lying about just whom the crib was made for, it's ten kinds of heartbreaking as well.

The Doctor comforting Lorna in the aftermath of the battle. She met him as a child, but from his perspective he hasn't met her yet. She's also dying. The Doctor lies to her and acts as though he knows who she is, only dropping the act and asking who she was when she's finally been able to pass on peacefully. Certainly a tearjerker as well.

And, weirdly enough, something of a funny moment—with absolutely no idea of who she was, he still knows enough about how his life tends to work out to realize that it's probably a very safe guess that he met her when they were fleeing in terror from something or other.

Vastra and Jenny's entire relationship. A Silurian and a human, not only working together but loving each other.

According to the wiki, Vastra saved Jenny from a Chinese gang. So there's that, too.

The entirety of the Colonel Runaway speech is this, while doubling as a Moment of Awesome. We all know that the Doctor loves Amy and Rory, but this is perhaps the first time that he outright says so. While, at the same time, being ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING. Coming at the Doctor through the people he loves is not in any way a good idea!

"Night and the Doctor," with "Good Night." Amy remarks that companions must be small parts in the life of the Doctor, he immediately corrects her.

Doctor: You are enormous parts of my life. And you are all I ever remember.

In "Let's Kill Hitler", all of the flashbacks concerning Amy, Rory, and their best mate Mels. She grew up with them, learned all about the Doctor, was the reason Amy and Rory eventually got together after she made Amy realise Rory wasn't gay, and dreamed of marrying the Doctor when she grew up. When she does meet him, she gets shot by Hitler and starts to regenerate. Turns out, she's River Song, who went to be with her parents after regenerating into a toddler in New York. Amy even named her daughter after her, meaning Melody Pond was named after herself.

When Rory and Amy were facing almost certain death from the Teselecta's antibodies, they both tell each other that "I love you" and hold each other as the antibodies get closer.

The ending, where River is in hospital, having just sacrificed her remaining regenerations to save the Doctor's life. The nurse says that she will be fine. The Doctor however says she won't just be fine, she'll be amazing, and then presents River with a diary, the iconic TARDIS diary River is seen with later on in her lifetime.

Still in "Let's Kill Hitler", the TARDIS voice interface conversation when the Doctor's dying. He goes from himself to Rose, then Martha, next Donna, and refuses them all, due to guilt. Finally, he says "There must be someone left in the universe I haven't screwed up yet", and gets the 1996 Amelia Pond. He constantly refers to her as the real Amelia Pond, cueing the VI to coldly and emotionlessly say "I am not Amelia Pond. I am the TARDIS Voice Interface", and tell him how long he has left to live. Finally, as he gives up hope, the voice says clearly, with some emotion finally, "Fish Fingers and Custard". Immediately, the Doctor gets hope, and uses that same phrase to go off and be a badass.

As the Doctor is dying, he whispers a message for River Song in Melody Pond's ear. Her response is a small, sad smile and the words "I'm sure she knows that." Three guesses what he said.

In "Night Terrors," Alex (George's dad) realizes that the reason George can't face his fear is that they accidentally gave him an inferiority complex because he heard them talk about sending him away. His response? Jumping into a group of Peg Dolls that were trying to hurt him and shielding George from them. Cue goosebumps.

Alex: Whatever you are, whatever you do, you are my son.

Followed by the little boy saying in the smallest voice ever heard, "...Dad!" D'awwhhh.

George may not be human, but his dad has proved once and for all that he is.

Seeing Mr. Purcell, the asshole landlord, return home after being trapped in the doll house, and the first thing he does is hug his menacing-looking dog for comfort, proving that even the people we think are the worst still are capable of affection, and still love something or someone, and need comfort.

In "The Girl Who Waited", Rory trying to save both versions of his wife despite the Temporal Paradox that he knows will result.

The Rory!Bot is Fridge Heartwarming. The AV Club review says it best:

Amy's naming of her "pet" robot after Rory, and Rory's reaction when he finds out, is kind of their relationship in microcosm—a simultaneously sweet and slightly demeaning gesture on her part that's deeper than she's willing to admit it is, accepted by him with a silent, slightly wounded stoicism that's nevertheless thrilled that she remembered him.

In a silly-but-still-cute example, the bot giving the original his glasses back. Either human or robot, Rory's a sweetie.

Both Amys have to concentrate on a powerful memory to cross into the same timestream. It starts a bit weird when they both start doing the Macarena, but then it turns out that Amy and Rory had their first kiss while doing just that.

"I don't care that you got old. I care that we didn't grow old together." Oh, Rory...

In "The God Complex", the Doctor leaves Amy and Rory on Earth, with a brand new house and car. For the first time in ages, a companion leaves the TARDIS without undergoing some horrendous Tear Jerker.

The fact that the Doctor deliberately refused to allow Amy and Rory to go through what his previous companions did just shows how much he loves them.

Due to Rory having no fear that can be exploited, instead of rooms containing fears, he only sees fire exits. To put it another way, he's refusing to leave Amy or the Doctor, despite the building literally showing him the way to safety.

Despite all the innocent people it murdered, despite the fact that it had to murder people like that in order to eat to survive, the Doctor holds no malice or hatred toward the Minotaur, gently patting it affectionately on the head to comfort it as it finally dies.

"Closing Time", when the Doctor sees Amy and Rory again in the shop. There's just so much… love on his face.

Doubles as a Tear Jerker when he has to tear himself away so that they won't see him.

On that note: Petrachor - For The Girl Who's Tired of Waiting.

Craig takes The Power of Love to whole new levels when the sound of Alfie crying gives him the will to resist and turn back the Cyberman-making process. Yes, he definitely proved he's a dad.

A more subtle one earlier. Fighting for his life with the Cybermat, as the Doctor breaks in to rescue him, Craig's first words to him are "Where's Alfie?" Proves he has the priorities of a dad straight already.

The Doctor giving Alfie a view of outer space on his ceiling, and giving him a little pep talk. There's something to be said about a thousand-year old alien who can confide his insecurities and find something to relate to in a baby.

The Doctor, knowing he has only a short time left to live, chooses to save the Earth one last time before he goes. No matter how he tries to convince himself, he just can't leave to enjoy himself, knowing that humanity is in danger. And then, he proves just how good of a friend he is to individuals by losing more time making sure Craig's house is tidied and fixed up, so he doesn't have to explain to Sophie. Just reminders of what kind of a man the Doctor really is, no matter how cruel he can sometimes seem.

There's a great joke early in the episode about how Alfie, named by Craig, prefers to be called Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All over Alfie. After his dad saves the world with love for his son, the kid decides he'd rather be called Alfie.

The Doctor sums up his relationship with humanity:

"I'm the Doctor. I was here to help. And you are very, very welcome."

The Doctor's reasoning for having his companions see his death.

Doctor: I had to die. I didn't have to die alone. Amy and Rory, the Last Centurion and the girl who waited. However dark it got, I'd turn around and there they'd be.

Rory not taking his malfunctioning eyepatch off because he's no use to Amy if he can't remember. Best husband ever, and they're not even married in that reality.

River and Amy send out a message to the rest of the universe that "The Doctor is dying. Please, please help." They get more than a trillion replies saying what amounts to "Yes, of course we'll help" from every corner of the universe. The Alliance that imprisoned the Doctor in the Pandorica may have hated him and may have thought that he would cause the end of the universe, but there are just as many if not more beings out there who would help the Doctor in any way they can.

River: You've decided that the universe is better off without you, but the universe doesn't agree! Doctor: River, no one can help me. A fixed point has been altered. Time is disintegrating! River: I can't let you die...! Doctor: But I have to die!River: Shut up! I can't let you die without knowing that you are loved by so many, and so much—and by no one more than me. Doctor: River, you and I—we know what this means. We are Ground Zero of an explosion that will engulf all reality. Millions upon millions will suffer and die... River: I'll suffer, if I have to kill you. Doctor: More than every living thing in the universe? River: Yes.Doctor: River, River, River... Amy, uncuff me. Now. they proceed to get married, snog each other senseless, and save the day]

When all the ships arrive in answer of River and May's signal. River sums up the situation quite well.

River: You've touched so many lives, saved so many people, did you think that when your time came, you'd really have to do more then ask?

Actually more heartwarming when you remember that, in "The Pandorica Opens", a million enemy ships showed up to imprison the Doctor. In this episode, a million times that many show up to save him.

The Teselecta ends up saving the Doctor's life by morphing into the Doctor's form and hiding the real Doctor safely inside of it.

It's notable that this was almost definitely the destruction of the highly advanced robot. What's more, if the plan failed, the fire would've killed whatever was left of the crew inside after the energy blasts. The Teselecta crew still went through with the plan, just for the chance to save the Doctor.

The ending scene with the Ponds. River making her mum feel better, sharing some wine, Amy wearing Rory's jacket from "Let's Kill Hitler" and the three's utter joy at the Doctor still being alive.

Doctor: I could help Rose Tyler with her homework. I could go to all of Jack's stag parties...

It's briefly implied that when time got all thrown together the Doctor stopped Cleopatra from committing suicide.

The death of the Brigadier, one of the Doctor's closest friends, is what finally convinces the Doctor to face his fate. He knows the Brigadier wouldn't run from death but do what needed to be done.

Series 7 / Season 33

The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe

The ending, where the Doctor shows up on Amy and Rory's doorstep for Christmas dinner. Even though it's been two years since the Doctor supposedly "died", the fact that those two still set a place for him just... guh. And then he cries happy tears and... and... Okay, yeah, the d'awww never stops.

For that scene, it helps (or makes it worse) when you remember how many episodes involve the Doctor either dealing with incredible loneliness or realizing how much damage he does (turning companions into weapons, for example.) In that scene, when he's standing awkwardly in their doorway, it hits him that he's actually done some good, and that he's truly loved. Matt wasn't the only one crying then.

The entire story is due to the Doctor simply wanting to give a great Christmas present to two kids, because their mother helped him out.

Doctor: And you can't help but think "What's the point of them being happy now when they'll be so sad later?" and the answer, of course, is "Because they'll be sad later."

Even though it was fairly obvious that Reg was going to turn out to not actually be dead, it was still a beautiful scene when it was revealed.

The very beginning of the episode. A ship of alien invaders orbits Earth and announces "People of Earth, you stand alone" right before the Doctor blows it up. No, mysterious alien invaders, we are not alone.

Also, a more subtle one: the Ponds painted their door TARDIS blue.

Asylum of the Daleks

The Doctor struggling with his anger and prejudices when he finds out the bitter secret behind what poor Oswin's become. Even though he finally opts for Brutal Honesty and tells her what's really happened to her, you can tell that he has nothing but admiration for how long she resisted her new nature and fought to preserve her own inner humanity. Even while comforting her, he has an immense urge to look at what she's become with hatred, but his previous respect for her and compassion for others wins out and he does his best to be nice to her and trust her, as awkward as the whole situation is.

Oswin, though heartbroken over the revelation, still manages to hold onto her mind and compassion until the very end and does all she can to help the Doctor and his companions get safely off the planet. Before they part, she has a short Badass Boast reaffirming her humanity. Moments before death, she relaxes with a knowing, happy smile on her face.

Rory bluntly noting that Amy still doesn't seem to trust him and his feelings towards her, but following it up with confirming that he'll always love her and always stand by her, regardless. Amy, while she broke up with him for a good reason that she hid until then, ashamed, realises that it wasn't necessary at all and her husband will always be supportive of her. At the start of the episode, the two of them were getting divorced. By the end, they have not only reconciled, but are determined to stay with each other no matter what. Despite the fact that, as Amy revealed to Rory, she can never have children again. Rory, while saddened, calms her and says they'll try to be a happy couple in spite of that.

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

Queen Nefertiti asks Amy if she is the Doctor's queen, prompting the reply:

Brian's favour from the Doctor, and the corny postcards he sends Amy and Rory. On that note, the postcard showing where the dinosaurs ended up, honouring the Silurians who saved them.

Earlier, the Doctor going totally fan-boy over the dinosaurs themselves, going so far as to befriend the Triceratops like any child would. A far cry from "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" when he seemed to hold little to no interest in them.

A Town Called Mercy

In the beginning narration, a resident of Mercy talks warmly about her town's mysterious protector. At first it sounds like she's talking about the Doctor, but by the end we realize that she's talking about the Gunslinger.

When a mob of Mercy residents, led by a 19-year-old, comes to the Marshall's office to capture Jex and hand him over to the Gunslinger, the Doctor refuses to hand him over so that the young man won't become a cold-blooded killer.

Resident: Is he worth [the risk]?

The Doctor: I'm not sure. But you are.

While the Gunslinger is hunting down Kahler Jex, he finds a group of people hiding inside in a church and leaves them all unscathed.

While it comes in the middle of an otherwise dark and painful scene, there's something heartwarming in the Doctor's complete lack of fear when Amy points a gun at him. He's so sure that she'd never actually hurt him that she might as well have been holding a banana.

Though the mutual tension (and loathing) between the Doctor and Kahler-Jex over their Dark and Troubled Past is palpable, they both realise that they're Not So Different: Both of them are veterans of a horrific war and both of them are trying their best to be The Atoner. When they decide to team up against the gunslinger, it's noticeable that they've earned each other's begrudging respect, even if neither of them particularly likes the other one.

After Kahler Jex dies, the Gunslinger feels he is a weapon without a purpose and decides to go self-destruct in the desert. The Doctor convinces him otherwise and makes the Gunslinger a protector of Mercy, complete with a Marshal's badge and a new-found sense of purpose. In addition, even after everything he'd been through, the Gunslinger looks genuinely happy at the end of the episode.

The Power of Three

First, the moment when the Doctor reveals that he knows who Kate Stewart really is; then, the moment when, leaving, he salutes her with profound respect.

Doctor: Don't despair, Kate. Your dad never did.

The Doctor's reaction every time someone gives him a kiss on the cheek in the episode. For some reason it happens a lot, and he seems quite happy about it every time. Especially cute with Rory, who took at least twelve episodes to warm up to him.

Especially when you note that they're all double-dipping—from the same bowl. Now that's closeness.

The Doctor and Amy's heart-to-heart conversation by the Thames. Accompanied by particularly beautiful music, the whole scene is touching, but of particular note is this exchange:

The Doctor: I'm not running away. But this is one corner in one country in one continent in one planet that's a corner of a galaxy that is a corner of a universe that is forever growing and shrinking and creating and destroying and never remaining the same for a single millisecond. And this is so much, so much, to see, Amy. Because it goes so fast. I'm not running away from things. I'm running to them before they flare and fade forever. That's all right. Our lives would never remain the same. They can't. One day, soon maybe, you'll stop. I've known for a while.

Amy: Then why do you keep coming back for us?

The Doctor: Because you were the first. The first face this face saw. And you were seared onto my hearts, Amelia Pond. Always will be. I'm running to you and Rory before you... fade from me.

The Angels Take Manhattan

River breaking her wrist and hiding it from the Doctor; her reason for doing so is an odd mix of Heartwarming and Tear Jerker.

River: When one's in love with an ageless god who insists on the face of a twelve year old, one does one's best to hide the damage.

Though it winds up upsetting River, it is still pretty sweet when the Doctor heals her wrist with superpowered-Time-Lord-regeneration-energy-magical-phebotinum... and then wraps it up with a kiss to make it better.

Amy's final words to the Doctor, written in a book. The words themselves are Heartwarming, but the method in which they were conveyed and the circumstances definitely fall into Tearjerker category.

Likewise, Rory's final words to his father Brian in "P.S.". The words, and the circumstances around them, combine Heartwarming and Tearjerker.

In the minisode "The Great Detective", Vastra and Jenny (and Strax, who seems to have declared war on the moon in all seriousness), having discovered that something is very, very wrong with the Doctor, have apparently been trying to buck him up again by calling him in on increasingly more and more contrived "cases", simply because they're worried about him. It's uncertain how much they know about what caused the Doctor's sudden rage and depression; they just know their friend is in pain, and are trying to help him however they can.

Jenny: ...Merry Christmas...!

And, as of "Vastra Investigates," they have been officially confirmed (as if it wasn't obvious already) as a couple. Not just lovers, not just existing to make tongue-in-cheek jokes.

Vastra: I was not originally keen on the society of apes, but then I made the mostelementary of errors. [gooey look at Jenny] I fell in love.

"The Snowmen" indicates that they are not even just a couple, but married.

This◊ moment. Very much like every time Amy and Rory hugged, but doubled because they've had so little screen time and so much of that was spent fighting... it's only a few seconds but it really underscores the fact that they genuinely love each other.

The Snowmen

The Doctor has not recovered from the Despair Event Horizon of losing Amy and Rory and spends much of the episode looking miserable and promising that he's retired. Consequently, seeing his goofy, childlike grin light up his face once more feels incredibly uplifting. Not to mention the scene where he realizes he put his bowtie on. Hearing the catchphrase again is a huge relief.

When Clara's dying, look in the background. Jenny gives Vastra this lost, defeated look, and Vastra crosses the room to hold her hand.

In the same episode, Clara, while being tested by Vastra, is asked why the Doctor would help her. She replies 'kindness' as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. Clara barely knows him but manages to put her finger on the same thing that Amy did, way back in "The Beast Below"—the Doctor is very old, and very kind.

The Doctor's sheer joy and enthusiasm at realising that something impossible. odd and mysterious is going on with Clara, and that she had not lived in vain. You can clearly imagine the heavy burden of guilt and apathy being lifted from his shoulders. When he surmises she's still out there somewhere, he becomes so excited and overjoyed and so enthusiastic about finding her that his depressionstarts quickly dissipating. Curious and deeply thankful at the same time, he decides he'll simply keep looking until he finds her and will do whatever it takesto become a good friend to her. When he takes off in the TARDIS, smiling, he "answers" Clara's cryptic phrase "Run you clever boy, and remember" with a delighted and cheeky "Watch me run!". Bonus points for that particular set of scenes being scored with a very moody and sombre, but at the same time very hope-raisingarrangement of the Eleventh Doctor's leitmotif.

The the prequel to the episode has young Clara comforting and talking to the Doctor and wishing him luck on finding his friend again.

In "The Bells of Saint John", the Doctor's message to his enemies regarding Clara, Under My Protection.

The Doctor, in general, being charming towards Clara in his own cockoolanderish way, tucking her into bed, leaving her snacks... He's just so happy to find her alive... somehow, and to get a chance to repay her for all she has done for him in the Dalek Asylum and victorian London.

Demon's Run: Two Days Later

In the minisode "Demon's Run: Two Days Later", Jenny is incredibly sweet and gentle with Strax as she encourages him to wake up, and invites him to live with them. It swiftly becomes hilarious as in the space of less than three minutes she becomes completely exasperated with him and the dynamic we know and love is established.

The Rings of Akhaten

The way Clara's parents met in "The Rings of Akhaten", with her father getting a leaf blown into his face, causing him to stumble into traffic and be rescued by her mother. He then tells her it's "the most important leaf in human history" because it grew and then fell off in just the right way to cause them to meet. It may feel Narmy, but hell is it adorable.

Clara's gift with children, especially with Merry, the young Queen of Years.

The Doctor makes two very important statements to Clara about how he handles situations when people are in trouble and need help.

The Doctor: There's one thing you need to know about traveling with me, apart from the blue box and the two hearts. We never walk away. The Doctor: We never walk away. But when we are carrying something precious—[looks at Merry]—we run. And we keep running, as far and as fast as we can, until we are out from under the shadow.

Also, his Rousing Speech to Merry about how she's the result of a vast number of elements interacting in an exact way over countless millions of years.

The Doctor: Hey, do you mind if I tell you a story, one you might not have heard? All the elements in your body were forged many, many millions of years ago in the heart of a faraway star that exploded and died. That explosion scattered those elements across the desolation of deep space. After so, so many millions of years, these elements came together to form new stars and new planets, and on and on it went. The elements came together and burst apart, forming shoes and ships and sealing-wax and cabbages and kings. Until, eventually, they came together, to make you!You are unique in the universe.

Made all the better by his insinuations that no matter whether you view the universe in a purely scientific way or in religious awe, what always matters in your faith is simple happiness, sincerity, and fairness. "The Reason You Suck" Speech he gives to the Monster of the Week is an encapsulation of his views on why faith and worship should never be about blindly cowering in fear to appease someone (as the locals were forced to do). Fear only commands more fear, but understanding and compassion builds true respect—something that the self-serving villain lacked.

As The Doctor goes to face the Old God, Clara and Merry try to think of something they can do to help him. Merry quickly comes up with a plan to sing to the monster and distract it long enough for the Doctor to defeat it. To add icing to the cake, Merry is quickly joined in her singing by all in attendance.

The episode revealed a lot about Clara's hidden grief and anger over the death of her mother that occured years ago. Once she helps the Doctor defeat the antagonist, she loses the leaf she inherited from the parents, one of the few keepsakes she has from her deepest childhood. She's also selflessly given up the ring she inherited from her mother, just so she and the Doctor could rent a vehicle at the alien market. But at the end of the episode, the rather sad atmosphere surrounding Clara's past is broached by the Doctor, when he gives her back the ring and tells her that the locals are returning it to her as a sign of gratitude. He then smiles at her and reasures her that she's not just some silly girl and has proven several times today how brave and kind she can be. Clara is astonished, shyly lowers her head, deep in thought, but eventually cheers up and smiles back. Her eyes are full of quiet amazement and joy. After the epilogue of the episode, we start seeing Clara gradually growing braver, fighting her feelings of inadequacy and being more honest to herself both about her flaws and her good traits.

Hide

When confronted with the more chilling implications of time travel, Clara develops a bit of angst over the matter, outright stating to the Doctor that "We all must be ghosts to you. We must be nothing. What could we possibly be?" For someone as peppy as Clara, her voice is full of mounting sadness and despair. The Doctor just pauses and replies, "You are the only mystery worth solving." Though he's clearly talking about humanity and everyone he's helped as a whole, he's saying it in a way that reassures Clara that no one's life is meaningless. Even her life is invaluable; everyone's is. Back in the manor house, Clara confesses to Emma that she's grown pessimistic when thinking about her fear of death and her fears about how "everything ends". Emma, who has otherwise been warning Clara that the Doctor might be hiding a lot of sad and dark things from her under his friendly facade, just faintly smiles and comments that "No. Not everything ends. Not love.". By the end of the episode, it's noticeable that though Clara still has fears, she's regained her optimism.

The Doctor's and Clara's encouraging but not too pushy effort at getting Alec and Emma to reveal their hidden romantic feelings to each other. Bonus points for it coming to an upbeat but funny conclusion, instead of needless mushiness.

Alec and Emma meeting and sheltering Hila, their descendant from centuries in the future.

In an interesting twist, the episode's monsters are also reunited, since they were just seeking each other.

Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS

A lot of the episode is definitely Tear Jerker territory, but there's a brief moment that's very sweet: After one of the salvagers callously rips off one of the TARDIS's core elements (ignoring the Doctor's pleas not to do so), the Doctor looks pained and briefly takes one of her remaining orbs in his hands reassuringly, as if to apologize and/or comfort her.

Even before that, in the opening, when the Doctor is trying very hard to help the TARDIS and Clara work out their differences by teaching Clara to fly her properly.

The Doctor's pure, growing joy and amazement at the realization that Clara is just Clara. She's not a "trick" or a "trap" or anything evil or dangerous—she's exactly the amazing person he thought she was and he gets to keep her.

The TARDIS's engine actually exploded. Despite this, she—as the Doctor puts it—"cupped her hands around the force," holding the explosion in stasis and prolonging her own inevitable death by doing so, to keep the people she cares about (and Clara) safe.

The fact that the TARDIS, despite their past clashes and Clara's irritation at the situation, makes it a point to create an "echo room" to keep her safe, even when she herself is crippled and in pain.

The salvagers' android (not really) frequently pleading with the others to leave the TARDIS alone, sensing that she is alive and in pain.

The Doctor briefly panics after seeing the damage to the TARDIS engine room, unsure of what to do. Before he has a Eureka Moment and comes up with an Indy Ploy, Clara quietly comes up to him and gently grabs his hand to calm him down. She doesn't hug him, or give him pleasantries or even look at him, but holding his hand, she gives him a clear message of "You Are Not Alone, I'm by your side". Amusingly subverted when the Doctor comes up with the solution after looking more closely at the palm of her hand.

The Crimson Horror

Vastra speaking of Jenny in terms of "the fittest and most beautiful" that Britain has to offer.

The Doctor's tender care for Ada, and the way his concern for her, once they realize she's in trouble, is equal or greater to his concern for Clara.

When the rocket goes up, the Doctor throws himself over Ada, turning her away from the blast and protecting her with his own body. He absolutely refuses to let her mother hurt her again.

The Doctor tenderly kissing Ada on the cheek when he leaves in the TARDIS, a particularly caring act from him. Her expression as she receives an actual physical act of care is a mixture of CMoH and Tear Jerker.

Ada: It's about time I step out of the darkness...and into the light. Doctor: Good luck, Ada! You know, I think you'll be just (kisses her cheek) splendid.

The Doctor is usually not that fearful for Clara, as he knows she's capable, but when he finds her and another of Mrs. Gillyflower's prisoners in a creepy form of suspended animation, he outright freaks out and smashes the glass case they were put in. After he manages to wake her up, he still shows almost childishly cute signs of worry about her well-being, made somewhat funnier by Clara still being somewhat dazed. Several moments between the two also show that they have gotten over their initial mistrust of each other and are very good friends now.

The Name of the Doctor

When confronting the Great Intelligence, the Doctor takes the time to see if Jenny, who was believed to have been killed by the Whispermen, is alright.

Also the Doctor kissing River and saying goodbye. This is a River that is post-death. Turned into a funny moment when he tells her that only he can see her.

When Vastra suddenly realizes that "a universe without the Doctor will have consequences", she keeps Jenny right at her side. For such a bold, practical character, seeing her having the very human instinct to keep her loved ones close in a time of crisis, even though there's nothing Jenny could possibly do to help, is incredibly touching.

Literally any time Vastra and Jenny interacted. Their love for each other is palpable and it shines through so clearly...

"Are you all right, my love, can you hear me?"

Strax restarts Jenny's heart and is almost comforting when he assures Vastra that the heart is "very simple, really."

Vastra:*almost crying, breathless with relief* I have not found it to be so.

When the Great Intelligence first encounters the Paternoster Gang shortly after Jenny's brush with death, Vastra keeps Jenny protectively behind her.

Clara's sheer determination to save the Doctor, one thing that stuck with her even as she was torn apart by time itself and she could remember nothing else.

The Doctor's positively anguished joy and relief at holding Clara in his arms again.

The Doctor: "Clara! My Clara..."

Before that was the Doctor's rather heartfelt speech to Clara about wanting to save her after she saved him thousands of times during his life.

The Doctor: How many times have you saved me, Clara? Just this once! Just for the hell of it! Let me save you!

The Doctor explaining to Clara why, even knowing that he should never go to Trenzalore, he has to anyway in order to save the Paternoster Gang, because they were always there for him.

Easy to miss, but after Clara sets things right, Strax is shown apologizing to Vastra for attacking her beforehand. Just shows that, as violent and thick as he is, Strax does care the Madame and her wife.

50th Anniversary Specials

The Night of the Doctor

"The Night of the Doctor" gives us a few heartwarming moments in what is otherwise a Tear Jerker.

The Tenth and Eleventh Doctors complimenting each other on their brainy specs.

Eleven and Ten: Oh! Lovely!

The fact they seem to get along is quite heartwarming, considering in other multi-Doctor stories, the Doctors always bicker with each other.

After reuniting from a long day's work (from Clara's end), we have a spinning hug between Clara and the Eleventh Doctor, it was so adorable.

When they see Elizabeth's credentials, a 3D painting (actually an instance of time suspended in a time cube) of the fall of Gallifrey), the Doctor immediately grabs Clara's hand for comfort. Soon it's revealed that Clara's pretty much become the Doctor's confidant when it comes to talking about the Time War; she's grown empathetic over his pain and regret to the point that, when she's about to witness him burn down Gallifrey again, she's determined to convince him that there's another way.

Clara:(crying and in shock) Look at you—the three of you; the Warrior and the Hero. (to Eleven) And you. Eleventh Doctor:(approaching her) And what am I? Clara: Have you really forgotten? Eleventh Doctor: Yes... Maybe, yes. Clara: We've got enough warriors. Any old idiot can be a hero. Eleventh Doctor: Then what do I do? Clara: What you've always done. Be a doctor.

And then Clara asking him what the promise of the Doctor's name stood for.

Tenth Doctor: Never cruel nor cowardly.

War Doctor: Never give up, never give in.

Better yet, while neither phrase had been used on the show before, both have a long history of being used by incredibly long-time Who writer Terrance Dicks in interviews, novels, and novelizations, making this not just a reaffirmation of character but a nice tip of the hat to the show's long and labyrinthine history.

Just the fact that Billie Piper and David Tennant were coming back.

The Moment. A superweapon so advanced it developed sentience and conscience, judging its would-be users. Because of that the Time Lords refused to use it, even with the Daleks besieging Gallifrey. When the War Doctor wants to use it, it not only tries to make him reconsider his plan, but even sets events in motion for him to see the outcome of his actions, including what it will do to him. It's quite heartwarming seeing a sentient super weapon trying to save lives, considering the usual portrayal of AIs in fiction.

The Curator: All I can do is tell you what I would do if I were you. (tears up) Oh, if I were you...

And given how the Eleventh Doctor seems so overjoyed to be talking to him, you have to wonder if Matt Smith wasn't channeling how thrilled he was to be talking to Tom Baker.

The very thought that the Doctor would get to retire peacefully one day. After all he's been through, he deserves it.

The look of utter peace and serenity on John Hurt's Doctor as he starts to regenerate into Nine.

Just before this; being more or less redeemed in the eyes of... himself, the War Doctor, however briefly, gets to be called The Doctor.

Hurt's face appearing in the credits, making him as much the Doctor as any of the others.

Plus: Every actor who played the Doctor (save the incoming Peter Capaldi) was listed in the closing credits, even though most of them only appeared briefly via archive footage.

Saving Gallifrey. The New Doctors have been haunted by the destruction of his homeworld. But they managed to save it, even if all the Doctors but the last one forgets.

The badass Time Lord General, fighting to save his people to the last. Shows that not all Time Lords are Omnicidal Maniacs, and that Gallifrey is a world worth saving.

The Gallifreyan children playing, and one little girl clutching a toy rabbit. Most of the references we've seen to the Doctor's or the Master's childhoods have been rather cold and somber, so it's good to know that Gallifrey's staid, tight-laced social order didn't always stifle children's capacity for joy.

In the beginning of the episode, the TARDIS opens for Clara when she beeps the horn on her motorcycle, and then it closes its doors at Clara's fingersnap. After all of the trouble the TARDIS had with Clara in the beginning, it seems to have grown (an honestly impressive amount of) affection for her following Clara's decision to jump into the Doctor's time stream to save him in "The Name Of The Doctor".

Before they find a better way Ten and Eleven appearing to the War Doctor to press the Big Red Button with him.

The War Doctor's utter joy when 10 and 11 realise that there's three of them, so they can pull off something one Doctor couldn't, and he doesn't have to push the button. It's very clearly a moment of immense relief for him.

The Tenth and Eleventh Doctor's similar reactions upon the realization of that as well. Ten even high-fives the TARDIS.

Also the Fridge Heartwarming realization, for viewers, that Nine - the most Time War-embittered and guilt-ridden of them all - must have also learned the truth when the Moment recruited him to work his share of the calculations. Imagine how he must have whooped for joy, when she told him Gallifrey stands!

A somewhat meta-example: Not just the three main Doctors coming to save Gallifrey in the climax, but all of the past Doctors. Just hearing their voices again, even if they're from recorded clips, reminds us of just how rich a history the Whoniverse has. And for the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, what could be a better salute than this?

The First Doctor: Calling the War Council of Gallifrey, this is the Doctor.

A very subtle one, but in the final credits Delia Derbyshire, who was never given credit by the BBC, finally gets the recognition she deserved for arranging the original Doctor Who theme.

Unfortunately, it's gone again for Time of the Doctor, and was likely just there due to the use of the original theme at the start—which, honestly, is still a bit sweet, seeing as she never got credit for that version during its actual period of use.

Given how bitter the Tenth Doctor was at being replaced in "The End of Time", it's so sweet as he's leaving the Eleventh Doctor to hear him say "Now I know my future's in safe hands."

The Tenth and Eleventh Doctors, after expressing nothing but revulsion for their actions as the War Doctor, going back in their TARDISes and telling him he was always the best of them, then putting their hands on the button with him, so that this time, he doesn't have to make that terrible decision alone.

And then another one a minute later, when they realize they can save Gallifrey, after all.

As Osgood and her Zygon copy openly wonder which of them is the real Osgood they hit it off and start bonding, until one of them starts to cough. The now obviously real Osgood (she managed to get her inhaler back during a scuffle earlier) gives her Zygon double a mischievous smile and shushes her, just before she hands her the inhaler.

Meta-Heartwarming, but when David Tennant wrote a foreword to the Complete Specials DVD, he wrote it as a short story where he went back in time to his younger self, and Older David has to disappoint Younger David by telling him that he never actually got to face the Zygons. That's not the case anymore.

Before leaving him alone with the mysterious Curator who wanted to see him, Clara gently kisses the Eleventh on the cheek and tells him "she always knows", after he had asked her about her figuring out that the they wanted to have the conversation in private. Eleventh's expression is a mix of delight, astonishment and shyness. The way she kisses him gives off a clear sign of her joy over how he and his other incarnations were at their bravest that day and brought back hope for themselves and Gallifrey, instead of resigning to sacrifice it once again.

This wonderful exchange:

The Moment: You know the sound the TARDIS makes? That wheezing, groaning. That sound brings hope, wherever it goes. War Doctor: Yes. Yes, I like to think it does. The Moment: To anyone who hears it, Doctor. Anyone, however lost. Even you.

The Time of the Doctor

A small but important one when the Doctor briefly mentions his Time War incarnation. He now affectionately/teasingly refers to the War Doctor as "Captain Grumpy". This is a far cry from the Doctors previous attitude, thinking of him as the Un-Person and The Dreaded.

The Doctor stayed to protect the town of Christmas for centuries, fighting all of his worst enemies in the process.

The Doctor promising Barnable that he would return to protect the town.

Clara's response to the Question That Must Never Be Answered, Doctor Who? She tells the Time Lords that the question is WRONG, because The Doctor's name is The Doctor. That's what he is, what he always will be, and what they should care about him for.

The Time Lords respond by giving the Doctor a new set of regenerations.

Clara's father tries his best to cheer her up when she resumes her family Christmas dinner. The family assumes she's crying about the Doctor dumping her, not knowing that she's actually crying about him leaving her behind again after she specifically told him to swear that he'd never do that again, especially since it is a prelude to his eventual death. Her grandmother also shares an uplifting story with Clara, about how no matter how hard one tries, one can't stop things from changing and that these things happen. And then she hears the soundof hope...

Tasha picks up Clara after the latter gets returned home again, knowing the Doctor shouldn't be alone when he finally dies. Little does she know that this act inadvertently ends up saving the day...

"I'd never have made it here alive without River Song."

As much a Tear Jerker as Eleven's end is, he regenerates happier than any Doctor since the War Doctor, knowing not only that Clara and the town of Christmas were safe despite all the odds, but that he had saved Gallifrey once more and at long last the Time Lords have shown their gratitude by giving him the power to defeat the Daleks and granting him a new set of regenerations. To top it all off in his dying hallucinations he is finally able to see Amy again and say goodbye.

Another mixed tearjerker/heartwarming moment is when Clara finds the incredibly aged and dying Doctor sitting in front of the crack and surrounded by the drawings and letters the children of Christmas had made for him over the centuries. What is he doing in this dark hour after centuries of constant war and bloodshed? Carving a wooden toy for a child as he has been doing for all the centuries he had been stuck there.

One of the scenes that follows this previous one is the aged Eleventh Doctor comforting Clara one final time before he decides to go up into the bell tower to face the approaching Daleks all alone, hoping for the best. Naturally, Clara is grief-stricken and begging the Doctor not to go, or to at least allow her to accompany him in this Darkest Hour. The Doctor, as much as he values Clara's loyalty and bravery, tells her that he must face this final challenge alone. He had tried his best to keep her out of the fighting on Trenzalore and he would never forgive himself if he knew she died in vain. After a very heartfelt hug and gentle kiss on her hair, he bids her farewell and tells her to stay in safety, no matter what happens. As he explains to her shortly before ascending the staircase, he wants her to be "his last, final victory". You can hear all the weariness and pain in his voice as he says that, but there's still a hint of a cheerful hope in it about things turning for the better because Clara will live and he will not have to die with the feeling that he has failed to protect her.

His last ever word is a single "Hey...", said tenderly and with a comforting smile to a teary-eyed Clara after she begs him not to change. You can see it in his eyes that he'd like to give her a friendly, loving hug at least one more time, but he can't due to the already ongoing regeneration.

On Clara's side, while she is crying during the regeneration over losing the friend she had known, her Tearful Smile is evidence that her sadness is at least alleviated by her knowledge that the Doctor will live on and not die as both of them had originally feared. While it's still a loss for her, she hasn't entirely lost her good friend and knows he'll be there for her, even if there might be changes to their relationship once he regenerates and gets used to a new body.

This one single episode redeems not one, but three elements of the Nightmare Fuel: The Silents turn out to be Good All Along and ally with the Doctor, the Cracks in the Universe are no longer threatening and serve as a way to save the day, and the Time Lords (treated as worse than Daleks by "The End of Time" and "The Night of the Doctor") become the Big Damn Heroes. Sometimes things aren't as dark as they seem!

When the Eleventh Doctor is facing down the Daleks for the final time, he's a very old man, looking very much like William Hartnell and limping on a cane. He's far less jovial than normal and basically asks the Daleks to get it over with. But the second the Time Lords give him a new set of regenerations he's instantly back to his old self, hamming it up and swinging his cane around like a baton.

Before he regenerates, the Doctor has one last meal: fish fingers and custard.

Eleven's whole attitude to his regeneration quite frankly is a big heartwarming moment. During Ten's final days he never really took the idea of regenerating that well to put it lightly. Here, not only is Eleven at peace with the idea of regenerating (from his speech on how change is good but he will never forget his past selves), he actually regenerates voluntarily to use the excess energy to save the day, and laughs wholeheartedly during the whole thing! Love from Gallifrey boys indeed!

The fact that the Twelfth Doctor looks older than the Eleventh. In "The Day of the Doctor", it's implied that Ten and Eleven prefer to look young out of shame for what the War Doctor did. Now, after learning what the War Doctor actually did, the Doctor's no longer ashamed to be mature.

In a meta example, Peter Capaldi once wrote a letter to a newspaper when he was six, saying that he wanted to become an actor because of his love of Doctor Who. One can only imagine his delight at the fact that he finally got to fulfill his childhood dream nearly fifty years later.

Also, when the newest Doctor first appears he appears stoic and downright intimidating. No doubt many fans worried he was going to be a far darker version of The Doctor. The audiences fears however are quickly put to rest when the first word out of this new Doctors mouth is "KIDNEYS!"

Series 8 / Season 34

Deep Breath

As brave as Clara is a lot of times, when she starts really getting afraid during the interrogation by the Half-faced Man, her fear really becomes palpable despite her effort at a stiff upper lip. Nevertheless, she insists, near-tearfully, that if the Doctor is who she thinks he is and if he is still her friend, he'll be by her side and come to her aid. She accompanies this by a subconscious gesture of moving her hand behind her back, wishing he was there to help her... And, sure enough, in a few seconds, he shows up in disguise, grabs her by the hand, frees her and starts nonchalantly sabotaging the villains' tech, all the while quipping dry-witted remarks.

In the first third of the episode, Clara is still shaken and dazed in the aftermath of the Doctor's regeneration, and she becomes something of a Butt Monkey to the Paternoster Gang for expressing confusion over why the Doctor looks elderly now. She at first thinks they're misunderstanding her worries about whether he regenerated properly (she thinks that the older appearance might be a sign of illness or an error) and are being mean to her on purpose. It turns out it was just a ruse by them to test whether she's really still a friend to him and hasn't adopted a more shallow opinion on him. Even before this is revealed, Clara gets annoyed about Vastra's insinuations that she only ever liked the Doctor for shallow reasons involving his former youthful appearance, leading Clara to explode in a rare fit of anger and speak her mind very clearly about her intentions and ethics. Earlier still, we see small signs of her still being acceptive of the Doctor even after his regeneration - tucking him in his bed, sitting by his side and watching him closely. Though the two are Vitriolic Best Buds, it's one of the many times in Series 8 when both show their unconditional love for each other. It's very touching even in its complete minimalism.

Strax is about to shoot himself, when Vastra calls for him to stop, endangering herself. Be it any of her compatriots, Vastra would sooner risk herself than see them die. The reason for Strax attempting that is heartwarming itself: It isn't so the clockwork robots don't have the chance to kill him, he was about to give in and breath again. He was trying to stop himself from giving them away. To protect his comrades.

Jenny's "I don't like her, ma'am. I love her.".

The Twelfth's first great "I am the Doctor" moment :

The Doctor "Those people down there. They're never small to me."

Into the Dalek

Danny proves that he's Adorkable by reciting a could have been assertive response to Clara's offer for a date. Clara hears him and let him know his chances toward a get-together are excellent, and they go out on their date at the end of the episode.

At the end, Clara earnestly assuring the Doctor that even when he fails, it doesn't mean he's not a good person. It's always the effort that counts and as long as he does his best, he can always strive to be a good man.

A bit of Fridge Heartwarming. After being exposed to the Doctor's hatred for the Daleks, Rusty's Dalek conditioning ends up being flipped, so that it instead regards the Daleks as creatures who need to be wiped out instead of every other life form. This means that it likely sees every other life form they way it once saw other Daleks, meaning that Rusty now regards them as comrades or even friends.

Robot of Sherwood

The final conversation between Robin and the Doctor.

Robin: History is a burden. Stories can make us fly.

Doctor: I’m still having a little trouble believing yours I’m afraid.

Robin: Is it so hard to credit? That a man born into wealth and privilege should find the plight of the oppressed and weak too much to bear...

Doctor: No.

Robin: ... Until one night, he is moved to steal a TARDIS? (The Doctor is left speechless) Fly among the stars, fighting the good fight? Clara told me your stories.

Robin: Well, neither am I. But if we both keep pretending to be... Ha-ha, perhaps others will be heroes in our name. Perhaps, we will both be stories. And may those stories never end. Goodbye, Doctor. Time Lord of Gallifrey.

Doctor: Goodbye, Robin Hood, Earl of Loxley.

Clara's reaction to meeting Robin Hood counts as this, too. After being told by the Doctor that Robin Hood is only a legend, Clara's emotional reaction to finding out that Robin Hood is real after all is pretty great.

The Doctor reuniting Robin with Marion.

"When did you start believing in impossible heroes?"

Clara: *looks straight at the Doctor* "Don't you know?"

Listen

A lot of what Clara does throughout the episode is noteworthy, but the standout moment comes at the end; when she encourages a very young Doctor to embrace his fears and even going so far as to have potentially given him his lifelong personal creed, in the very barn where he'd return as the War Doctor in what's probably the single most important decision of his lifetime.

The Doctor's speech to young Danny, telling him how fear is a superpower and that it made him stronger. Considering the more aloof and grumpy nature of this Doctor, the fact he's still able to connect with children proves this is one aspect of the Doctor that transcends regenerations.

Clara glomping the Doctor at the end. It's just too darn cute, especially considering what just proceeded it. The Doctor's dismay upon being hugged somehow makes him even more adorable than if he'd just accepted it.

I feel the need to point out the particular way she just affectionalely rubs her face against his arm with an expression of pure bliss and appreciation.

When Clara realises that they may have just gone and caused Danny's life as a soldier, she sighs in shock. The Doctor, who was previously in a rather happy mood instantly runs over and asks if she's alright.

The Doctor using his "dad skills" to put Rupert to bed. The fact that he freely offers up this information might show that after what happened in the 50th, he's still holding out hope that his family is still out there.

The entire premise of the episode can be summarized as Clara and the Doctor meeting each other when they are both in a bit of a state (Clara from her abysmal failure of a Date, the Doctor from whatever he's been doing out in the universe by himself) and, through means as unusual as you'd expect from them both, managing to provide each other with some measure of comfort and support.

Time Heist

Finding out that the whole heist was a plot by the Doctor to reunite the Teller with its mate.

The ending, with Team Not Dead standing around a console telling jokes and eating Chinese food.

The Doctor Who Extra making-of episode covering "Time Heist" includes the heartwarming revelation from director Douglas McKinnon that he included a cardboard rocket ship made by his daughter among the treasure items in Karabraxos' vault, on the grounds that as far as he's concerned it is one of the most valuable objects in the universe.

The Caretaker

Courtney Woods might be a disruptive influence, but she really seems more like a Shipper on Deck trying to push Danny and Clara together with all her lighthearted teasing.

Clara outright admitting in front of Danny and the Doctor that she loves her boyfriend. Danny later decides that he genuinely wants to be there for her if the Doctor pushes her too hard because he recognizes his officer-like personality, having been there himself. He has got Clara's back and even wants to prove to the Doctor that he's worthy of being her boyfriend.

The Doctor and Clara get into an Adorkable finger-snapping match on the TARDIS, causing her to open and shut her doors in confusion because she fancies both of them.

The Doctor compares Clara to Barbara, and Clara assures him she's the exact type of strong-willed teacher Barbara was.

Doctor: It's a scanner. I'm scanning. Why do I keep you around?

Clara: Because the alternative would be developing a conscience of your own. Scanning for what?

Doctor: Any alien technology in this vicinity should show up. I used to have a teacher exactly like you once.

Clara: You still do. Pay attention.

For once, the Doctor doesn't even bother to hide the secrets that he's an alien or a time traveler in a police box that's bigger on the inside. When Courtney Woods proves too cunning for any excuses to work on her, he just shows her the ropes of the fourth dimension and doesn't care less if she tells her friends or parents (given that she's a troublemaker, it probably won't lend her word much credence even if she blabs about the Doctor). Unfortunately, Courtney gets in-flight sickness and ralphs. But the Doctor doesn't complain—he just decides to adhere to his new-found niche as a caretaker and clean up a mess.

Similarly, the Doctor seems genuinely delighted that Courtney is a troublemaker, which is probably not a reaction Courtney gets especially often.

Courtney: You're weird.

Doctor: Yes, I am. What about you?

Courtney: I'm a disruptive influence.

Doctor:Good to meet you!

Kill the Moon

Even if much of the episode is about how the Doctor's efforts can be very misguided at times, his willingness to take Courtney on an adventure as an apology for being rude to her is a nice gesture.

Danny comforting Clara after she leaves the TARDIS, absolutely heartbroken and disappointed at how the Doctor had treated her (despite his pretense of doing it for her own good). The best thing about Danny calming Clara down ? He doesn't revel in hearing about the falling out she had with the Doctor and even notes wisely that his own experience tells him that decisions made in anger are hardly ever permanent and might not reflect one's opinions accurately. You're not really done with someone until you're done with him.

Mummy on the Orient Express

The Doctor is being cold and calculating in order to figure out the mystery behind the mummy and what Gus has in store for them all, but despite this demeanor, he opts for a clever trick to give Maisie Pitt a fighting chance and divert the antagonist's attention to him, in order to save her life. Completely reckless risking of his own life, but with a succesful pay off. Very Doctor-y...

When the real origin of the mummy is revealed and the Doctor ends the being's suffering, he pays his respects to it. This is despite the fact that the person who was originally the mummy belonged to a group that the Twelfth has shown a near-cartoonish dislike for.

The Doctor's and Clara's conversations in general. She assures him early on that she disagrees with him, but doesn't hate him (saying this while gently stroking his arm, in a gesture of friendly affection). Their conversations in the episode's finale, on the beach and in the TARDIS, particularly stand out. For the first time, we see the Twelfth openly admit that, as much as he feins heartlesness and as much as he has to often make unpleasant choices, he doesn't enjoy it and would prefer if he didn't have to sacrifice a single one of the lives he's determined to save. The fact that he ironically adresses Clara's insinuations (that he might be taking pleasure in being impersonal to a fault) just moments before he comes clean, drives the point further home. Clara's not entirely happy about the attitude, but it's clear she's happy that he was finally honest to her and isn't being mean on the surface just to spite others. Their friendship is bound to stay difficult, but they have an insight into their flaws now.

The Doctor's bewildered, but delighted "Seriously ?". For maybe the first time since Twelfth's inception, his smile isn't sly and jaded, cheeky, or awkward, but seems genuinely pleased and pleasantly surprised. In an almost child-like way. The fact that he was slowly preparing himself on bidding a permanent farewell to Clara before she changed her mind about staying as his companion, makes it all the more heartwarming.

Implied: Clara wakes up on the beach, wrapped in blankets and lying on a cosy, comfortable spot, while the Doctor is fooling around and patiently waiting. The TARDIS is quite a walk away from the two. The Doctor had apparently carried Clara all the way to that spot and tucked her in carefully so she could enjoy a calm nap while he waits for her to wake up. Given the conversation that follows, it's clear that the Twelfth is fighting his conflicted, outwardly cynical personality, and wants to show that he's just as caring and nice on the inside as he always was.

Even though Perkins declined, the Doctor offered him something of a companion role, as he could use a mechanic in the TARDIS from time to time.

Mixed Tear Jerker / Heartwarming: Clara's decision at the end of the episode to tell a white lie to both the Doctor and Danny, since she wants to avoid making them both unhappy or at odds with each other again. Knowing the nature of the show, this little decision might backfire on her later, even if the overall intention is good.

In the Forest of the Night

"It's my world too, I walk your Earth, I breath your air." An Ironic Echo that's beautiful. And confirms what we've known for years about The Doctor/Earth.

Related: For once, the Doctor gets his "trick the Companions to get them out of danger" routine we've seen so many times ("Timelash", "Parting of the Ways", "Time of the Doctor" etc.) performed on him - Once they reach the TARDIS, Clara reveals that she chooses to go down with the earth, but tells him to get out and save himself. It's not only a continuation of the common situation/ theme of role reversals (Security Clings, being dragged around by the companion for a chance...) they had going on the previous seasons, but shows how much deeper their understanding of each other has become since "Kill the moon"; So much is communicated through their expressions alone.

Clara's and the Doctor's conversation at the end; The very fact that they're harmoniously musing about the universe again, their bond that was previously rather strained having grown stronger through the experience of getting a better look at each other's rougher edges but also what he says... He does surmise that the overnight forest incident will probably be explained away and that humanity is more likely to just go about their lives than have any greater epiphanies, but he admits that while remembering everything would probably stop all wars, it would also stop people from having babies; Basically, yes, the "Pudding Brains" are limited and imperfect, but they are the way they have to be to be the enduring survivors they are, and he'd terribly miss them if they were gone.

The Doctor's interactions with Maebh and the rest of the children. Twelve may be colder and more serious than his predecessor, but he's still every bit the Friend to All Children and One of the Kids that he was when was Eleven.

Dark Water

The Doctor telling Clara that despite her betrayal of his ideals, he's still willing to help her reunite with Danny.

When the Doctor starts becoming genuinely terrified of who Missy and her underlings might be, he moves his hand towards Clara's, signalling her to grab him by the hand. This is the first time the calm and rational Twelve has ever done such an emotional gesture towards her, hinting at how even he is starting to feel uncomfortable about where they are and what's going on. Clara shyly locks hands with him and it's clear from their expressions that, no matter their recent row, they have to attempt to help each other as friends and do their best to survive while trying to find and free Danny.

Danny refuses to prove to Clara that it really is him when he realizes that proving it would cause her to do something drastic to try and rejoin him. He's been subject to horrible and calculated mental trauma and fear prior to that, and has no idea what to do in the situation he is in, but even then, he puts Clara's well-being first and foremost. It's all the crueler when you realise he has no concrete idea that Clara might be very near and could help him.

Death in Heaven

Kate refers to Clara as the Doctor's associate. The Doctor corrects the word "associate" with "friend."

The Brigadier, like Danny, proving the strength of his love for his daughter and his country by overcoming his Cyberman programming - and saving those two things he loves. Finally getting that salute and thanks from The Doctor himself is just icing. Also applies as a tearjerker.

Likewise, despite his dislike of soldiers, the Twelfth Doctor still retains his respect for the Brigadier, and knew the Brig would be there for him in his "darkest hour" in the end.

And keep in mind that Capaldi was a big fan of Three's era as a kid, making this his equivalent of David Tennant getting to give Sarah Jane a proper goodbye.

The Master giving the Doctor a birthday present, though a truly twisted one. Especially heartwarming due to the fact that the Doctor doesn't even know it's his birthday, let alone expect a present.

Also her entire reason for doing all of this? "I just want my friend back."

Doctor: "I am not a good man….. and I’m not a bad man. I am not a hero, and I’m definitely not a President. And no, I’m not an Officer. You know what I am? I, am, an idiot! With a box, and a screwdriver. Passing through, helping out, learning. I don’t need an army, I never have, ‘cause I’ve got them, always, them. Because love, it’s not an emotion… love is a promise. (points at an embracing Clara and Danny) And he, he will never hurt her."

Danny's, Clara's and the Doctor's final moments together. There's much bitterness present, but also a lot of love and forgiveness, and sense of duty to your loved ones.

Clara had, in a moment of quick thinking, confiscated the Master/Missy's weapon. After the Evil Plan is thwarted, Clara threatens Missy with the weapon, but the Doctor stops her (in an interesting reversal of the companion being the conscience that prevents the Doctor from committing pointless violence). He goes as far as to promise Clara he'll do the killing for her, as long as she doesn't do it - he doesn't want her to live with being a killer. Missy uses his act of kindness as another excuse to taunt the Doctor, mocking his effort of "saving Clara's soul" from becoming corrupted by a lust for revenge. Then the Doctor, dreading the thought that he'll have to kill Missy himself in order to end it all, gets help from an old friend he least expected to show up...

The Doctor's and Clara's (probable) farewell embrace. After a whole series of the Twelfth's aversion to hugging, he finally caves in and returns Clara's affections, instead of just awkwardly bearing her hug. We also learn from him why he's had an aversion to hugging in the first place. Given what he says in the explanation and what both he and Clara are still hiding from each other, it's also somewhat of a Tear Jerker.

The Stinger at the end qualifies, too. Santa Claus is not going to let things end that way for The Doctor, Clara, or the audience.

Last Christmas

Clara dreaming of an ideal Christmas where Danny is still alive and there to keep her company as her Santa Claus.

The dream version of Danny suddenly sounding like he can think for himself and telling Clara she can miss him five minutes at a time each day, but to move on with her life. Maybe that was the real Danny reaching out to her in the dream. (Even if it wasn't, Clara subconsciously knowing that the real Danny would not want her to stay overriding the dream crab's trying to keep her in is nice.)

Danny also corrects the Doctor about his dying to save the world. "I died to save her. The rest of you just got lucky."

Clara cuddling the Doctor in Santa's sleigh and declaring him her equivalent of Santa Claus. Twelve, still a wee bit squeamish about hugs, tries to fight it, but then gives in to the embrace.

In fact, the sleigh ride, period. All of it is just pure sugar-coated Christmas joy, even if it is just a dream. Everyone cheering and hollering as the sleigh flies by a gonging Big Ben, the London Eye, and the rest of London, which has been CGI-rendered into a glorious snow-capped winter wonderland.

Shona trying to get everyone's numbers before they wake up so they can meet in the real world.

The Doctor gets a second chance for once and is able to right his mistake of lying to Clara from the previous episode.

Clara giving the Doctor a thank-you smooch on the cheek on Christmas.

Clara rejoining the Doctor on the TARDIS for more adventures.

A tangerine has been left sitting conspicuously on Clara's windowsill, suggesting that the real Santa played a part in pushing the Doctor and Clara back together again.

The Doctor puts a paper Christmas crown on old!Clara's head, and she asks him how she looks.

Clara: ...there was one other man. But that would never have worked out.

The Doctor: (in a soft voice) "Why not?"

Clara: "....he was impossible."

The Doctor: (utterly defeated) "I'm sorry, I was stupid. I should have come back earlier. I wish I had."

Santa: '(revealing by his mere presense that they're still dreaming)': "How badly do you wish that?"

It's both the fact that, even on her own, Clara would have lived a life of adventure and even find a way to jugle her job and her adventures without any time machine, and, well, the revelation that as much as she tried to ignore them or move on from them, her feelings for the Doctor remained unchanged all along even after the regeneration and her encounters with his edgier sides, and that she was at least able to tell him when she had nothing more to lose by it. Then, of course, you find out it's a dream and your reaction goes straight into happy excited squealing.

Other

Audio

From the audios: "Changing history, Doctor Smythe?" Said with such great affection and after we thought he was poofed and AWWWWWWW.

Pretty much any time the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn are traveling together, at least one awww moment is guaranteed. It's one of the many, many reasons why Big Finish audio plays are Made Of Win.

Also, any scene with both Evelyn and Rossiter in "Arrangements for War". A Cool Old Guy and a Cool Old Lady falling in love, and it's just perfect.

Its companion/sequel, Thicker Than Water, continues the story and features Evelyn's final goodbye to Six. Doubles as a Tear Jerker.

Edith's speech to Charley in "The Chimes of Midnight".

The ending, when Edith realizes she is not nobody; she is somebody, and she matters. After four solid episodes of being alternately shat on by rich assholes and being repeatedly murdered, it's incredibly good to hear.

Eight reuniting with Susan in "An Earthly Child". You can literally hear them hug, it's beautiful.

Somewhat tangentially, in the one audio Fitz is in, they do that audible-hugging thing twice in a twenty-five minute radio drama, once because they're splitting up to go face danger, and another time because they haven't seen each other in about eighteen hours. Either they care about each other very, very much, or they're just trying on purpose to break Two and Jamie's record for clinginess. Maybe it's both.

Along the same vein, Eight's reunion with Lucie in Resurrection of Mars. Given that they last parted under very nasty circumstances, it's all the more heartwarming.

Doctor: I never thought I'd see you again. Lucie: I never wanted to see you again. Doctor: I know. Lucie, rather fondly exasperated: Oh, give us a hug, you. *Cue interruption by an Ice Warrior*Lucie: Oi! Touching reunion going on here!

Adric's parting words to Thomas Brewster in "The Boy That Time Forgot," not just because he's finally forgiven the Doctor for all the hell he's been put through, but because it's one of the only times that an old companion has gotten to give a new companion a Passing The Torch speech.

Adric: Goodbye, Thomas Brewster. Stay with the Doctor, won't you? If you don't belong anywhere, in any time, if you're an orphan, then the best thing to do is to stay with the Doctor!

The end of The Gathering. Five reunites with Tegan, years after their TV adventures. Initially she's prickly and bitter, but by the end, she's glomping the Doctor with a huge goodbye hug and kiss.

Comics

Not even the DW comics escape this. Once, the Eighth Doctor travelled with Kroton, a Cyberman who had somehow retained his ability to feel emotions. Kroton had a lot of damn good moments like pummeling a patrol of Sontarans into submission, but he also had a lot of potential for Tear Jerkers given that he kept having flashes of his former life before becoming a Cyberman. In The Glorious Dead, Izzy, another of the Doctor's companions, gives him a memory crystal and forces him to use it so he can fully remember (It Makes Sense In Context). And he does, and the memories of his whole family are restored to him. His voice cracking as it all comes back, trembling through the pain and the sweetness of all he had lost, almost weeping in joy, is Kroton's true CMOH.

And of course, there's the comic when a depressed Eight goes to a bar to drown his sorrows after a particularly nasty time, and runs into 'Bish, the bar's owner. Both have a chat together when a cheated robot barges in with an explosive threatening to blow up the bar. Eight suavely approaches her, and with genuine sorrow in his voice, reminding her of the flow of Time and how everybody longs for the past that is no longer with us, gets close enough to her and turns her and the explosive off. Everybody breaths again and the Doctor and 'Bish remain a while after closing. The Doctor thanks him for the heart-to-heart and leaves on a holiday. Due to an earlier interruption, 'Bish never learned the Doctor's name. Unfortunately, after the Doctor leaves, 'Bish drops his form as a tall bartender and reveals himself to be Frobisher, the Doctor's old companion, who complains he never got to learn the man's name...

At the end of IDW Comics' The Forgotten miniseries. The Tenth Doctor asks the TARDIS' matrix to appear as one specific Companion — "You know who I need to see..." and it's Susan, so he can finally hug and say goodbye and apologize for leaving her so many, many years ago.

Doctor Who Magazine's short gag comic Doctor Whoah! gets on in issue 433, the first issue released after the death of Nicholas Courtney. It shows all 11 Doctors facing the reader and saluting.

The Doctor Who Magazine comic Hunters of the Burning Stone starring the Eleventh Doctor brings back some of The Doctor's first companions ever... Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. Who, after an understandable amount of confusion (having left The Doctor before learning of his ability to regenerate) slowly come to accept that the young man piloting the TARDIS is in fact the same as the old man they traveled with before.

The Doctor's appeal to Barbara.

Barbara: Who are you?

Doctor: (with a smile) Barbara Wright...The school teacher who became an Aztec god. Who braved the Gobi desert with Marco Polo. Who dined with Nero as Rome burned... Do you really not know me?

Barbara: (stunned silence)

Later The Doctor is able to overcome a psychic assault, with the memories of the moment when Ian first persuaded the Doctor not to kill someone. The Doctor then tells Ian he inspired him to be a better man ever since. Ian then reassured the Doctor that he was a good man, and the two finally reconcile.

Ian: Your a legend alright, but not a dark one. You've been a thread of hope running throughout human history! Doctor, if you learn anything from me, learn that! I want you to see yourself through our eyes! Accept what you truly are...and forgive yourself.

The best part comes at the end, especially if you're an original series fan. Ian and Barbara get married, with The Doctor as the best man!

In issue 11 of Doctor Who Ongoing comic "Body Snatched", The Eleventh Doctor and Amy get their minds swapped. Rory is completely supportive of Amy throughout the comic, freely giving hugs to comfort her while she's stuck in The Doctor's body.

Books

The Eighth Doctor Adventures novel "Shadows of Avalon" has the Brigadier, in the aftermath of a screaming argument with the Doctor where both men virtually severed their friendship with each other over events in Avalon (basically the human dreaming). During the siege of a castle, the Brigadier, thinking the Doctor dead, realises that he was right, and tells the troops that their job is to save the day and do the right thing - just as the Doctor would have wanted. Naturally, being an attention tart, the Doctor trumps him by performing a chandelier swing into the middle of the room, but it doesn't detract from the emotion in the Brigadier's speech.

Also from a Brigadier-Doctor scene... in the Doctor Who New Adventures novel The Dying Days, the Doctor hugs the Brigadier after surviving the exploding Martian ship, and for once the Brigadier doesn't push him away.

The Doctor Who novel The Glamour Chase pulls one at the end, where Rory is upset about how unfair it is that one of the characters had to deal with the horrors of PTSD all alone, in a time before it was understood and before treatment was possible. The Doctor interrupts by hugging him and kissing his forehead, telling him not to lose that compassion, because sometimes, he forgets himself how important it is.

Doctor: He's a keeper, this one. Amy: I know. That's why I'm marrying him in about seventy-five years time.

Of course then it immediately becomes a Tear Jerker when the Doctor makes a throwaway comment about Rio and we realise what happens to Rory next.

The Eighth Doctor's companion Fitz has been brainwashed into believing he's in love with one of the villains-of-the-week but somehow overcomes it when the Doctor's in danger, telling the woman who's been deceiving him "You forced me to love you. With him it's the real thing."

Real World

Shortly after the premiere of The Eleventh Hour, a man came up to Matt Smith on the street to congratulate him on his performance. This man was none other than Peter Capaldi, Matt Smith's eventual successor as the Twelfth Doctor.

He’s a shining light. When he focuses on you, there’s nobody else in the room. I love that. He’s coming from his heart. He’s genuine. I stood in the TARDIS after all these years and said ‘Doctor, lovely to meet you,’ and David said, ‘Aaah, Polly!’ My heart was fluttering away.

During a Doctor Who panel at Comic-Con 2012, a 6 year old girl asks Matt Smith if he is afraid of the Weeping Angels. Smith then asks the little girl if she is and nods. Smith responds that he will fight them off, much to the delight of every fan there. You can view it here.

Matt: But what you did say, was that I'd have the most fun ever. And you know what? You were right.

Additionally, their guest appearance on Graham Norton, where they come out together holding hands. Then, after sitting down, Graham makes fun of David for the... unorthodox hair that David had at the time (for a play), to which Matt counters by defensively shouting out "I like it!". Seen here.

Outside the show: The "Fear Forecasters" (children who, with their parents, were shown advance screenings of episodes by the BBC so they can warn other children of how scary they are) watched "School Reunion". These comments occurred when Sarah Jane appeared on-screen:

Matt Smith: I just wanna wish my successor all the best, and just say good luck. And good on you for getting it, 'cause I know he's both a huge fan of the show and a really nice guy. And I think, the casting of it made me really excited, genuinely. And as a fan, I think it's a really canny choice, I think it'll be a hit. So good luck, man, it's going to be a thrill!

This multi-fandom farewell to the Eleventh Doctor, which a multitude of others have since joined, including the Supernatural fandom, the Avengers fandom, and even the sometimes-infamous Homestuck fandom. With all the rabid Fandom Rivalry going about on the 'Net, it's wonderful to see some simple kindness and solidarity for a change - on Christmas, no less.

In the behind the scenes featurette of Time of the Doctor, Matt Smith's final episode, during the readthrough of his final lines Matt breaks down into tears, where we then see Steven Moffat and Jenna Coleman comforting him.

As funny as it is heartwarming, the cast wrapping up David Tennant's run by performing "500 Miles", a song from his favorite band, The Proclaimers. Seeing the cast, the crew and even some of the off-set people (introducing Sue the Caterer and the Drivers) just rocking out and having fun is hilarious and warm at the same time. Especially when this subtitle pops up:

*While David is dancing with two particular people*: The Proclaimers and their Biggest Fan

While filming the TV Movie, Paul McGann played with his young son while on set in full costume.

Peter Capaldi: I will do my very best to be the Doctor. Of course it will be different, 'cause I'm different (...) [Matt and Jenna] say it's okay for me to be the Doctor, so I hope you think it will be okay for me to be the Doctor too.

After "The Night of the Doctor" aired, Paul McGann did an interview with Doctor Who Magazine and had this to say about the fans reaction to it:

"I have to say, all those years since ‘96 where perhaps I thought, as I did at one time, that the Eighth Doctor, by dint of the failed TV pilot… that the Eighth Doctor, though liked in some quarters, perhaps wasn’t so liked in others, and was only tolerated in the scheme of things…There’s no doubt now, in my mind, that the Eighth Doctor is part of it, that he’s right there in the heart of it. He has earned his place, and that’s really gratifying.”

When Lindalee Rose, a kid reviewer of recent Doctor Who episodes, met with Jenna Coleman and Matt Smith to do interviews with them, she gave Jenna a leaf very similar to that of Clara's. Reasoning ? She wanted to cheer Clara up, since Clara had to sacrifice the leaf she had as a family keepsake in the "Rings of Akhaten". Jenna was surprised and delighted by the unusual gift. And Matt joked about and he and Lindalee gave each other high fives.

Peter Capaldi's personal condolences to the students of the Glasgow School of Art after a tragic fire consumed many beautiful works.

TV Tropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy